This class will gently introduce you to the 16th- to 18th-century European art of improvising over a recurring bass / harmonic pattern (a ‘ground’), which the Italians called ‘continuo’. Our model will be the famous Italian la folia [‘madness’] ground, which was known all over Europe, including in Ireland. Like many composers around 18th-century Europe (and before), the famous Aracangelo Corelli used it to compose gorgeous ‘divisions’ [variations], which show up in an 18th-century Irish fiddle MS written only 40 minutes (and 300 years!) to the south of Kilkenny. We will examine this beautifully notated, relatively recently discovered MS source, and let it inspire us to play the fashionable ‘new’ Italianate music that would have been well known to vernacular Irish harpers pre 1800.