The arrangement I've come up with is based on a continuously descending bass line (octave displacements where required). It's not necessarily idiomatic to O'Carolan's harp style but definitely relates to the counterpoint of the Baroque era and makes a connection between O'Carolan and Bach. Some may say it's a stretch but I'm prepared to make it.
All that aside, Williams expresses a side of his artistic temperament in this arrangement of O'Carolan's Farewell to Music that I really wasn't aware of despite attending numerous John Williams concerts over the years. As you say, "And at pushing eighty? Hoo Boy."
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