GORT River Walk recently saw the launch of a unique geolocated audio experience along its banks that celebrates the legacy of a famous Irish composer.
David Murray, who has worked tirelessly with his colleagues in Gort to make the River Walk what it is, launched the Carolan’s Rambles Sound Walk and praised the vision of Sinead Hayes and Katharina Baker who drove the project along despite the unsettling year that has been.
The roots of this venture span back to the 1700s when composer and famed musician Turlough Carolan was busy entertaining his hosts throughout Connaught, Clare and south Ulster until his death in 1738, at the age of 68.
The year 2020 was the 350th anniversary of the birth of Turlough Carolan and Sinead Hayes, a young Galway musician, has made sure that we remember the legacy that Carolan has left to Irish music.
Together with Katharina Baker of Coole Music and Arts, they have encouraged a phenomenal outpouring of creativity from children and teens involved with the music school.
From last March Sinead popped into the children’s homes via Zoom as they played ‘virtually’ alongside their music teacher and peers from seven groups within Coole Music.
The project ‘Carolan’s Rambles’ unfolded not only through the music played by the young Coole Music musicians but through their artwork, stories, poems and original music compositions which they created during the past three-months.
The free ‘Geo-located Sound Walk’ is the first one in Ireland to use this newly launched sonic maps software, which can be enjoyed right up to July 26 along the trail in Gort (entrance beside Aldi).
Follow the link below to be brought to the page
https://sonicmaps.xyz/player/?p=575
Visitors can ramble along the River Walk and, arriving at points along the way which have become ‘virtual stages’, can pause and hear invisible musicians and young story tellers.
They can access the content through their smart phone by holding the camera over the QR code on the Carolan’s Rambles poster or downloading the app through www.coole-music.com
For those who cannot reach Gort, the online booklets are a treasure in themselves, say the creators.
Two E-Books with the creative responses of Carolan’s Rambles as well as an E-Book of 19 original musical compositions composed by children from Coole Music during the project are also available to download from Coole Music’s webpage.