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Title: Beethoven’s Irish Songs Revisited

Beethoven’s Irish Songs Revisited

Texts Chosen by Tomás Ó Súilleabháin Edited by Margaret O’Sullivan Farrell

by Tomás Ó Súilleabháin (Author) Margaret O'Sullivan Farrell (Author)
©2019 Monographs X, 192 Pages
The Arts
Series: Carysfort Press Ltd.

Summary

Beethoven’s seventy-two settings of traditional Irish airs constitute his most prolific output in any genre. The arrangements were commissioned in the early nineteenth century by the Scottish editor and publisher, George Thomson, who sent airs, but no texts, to Beethoven. Poetry, mostly by less well-known poets, was attached to the finished settings before publication by Thomson, and perhaps therein lies the reason why the songs never achieved the popularity which they deserve: many of the poems have been judged to be of inferior quality. In this edition, the first in which all Beethoven’s Irish folksong settings are published together, the late baritone, broadcaster and musicologist, Tomás Ó Súilleabháin, selected texts, mostly by Burns and Moore, which he felt were more appropriate to the airs and to Beethoven’s settings.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the author(s)/editor(s)
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Contents
  • Acknowledgements
  • Introduction (Kerry Houston)
  • List of Songs
  • Songs
  • 1. GO WHERE GLORY WAITS THEE
  • 2. THOUGH THE LAST GLIMPSE OF ERIN
  • 3. O WERE MY LOVE YON LILAC FAIR
  • 4. O WHISTLE AN’ I’LL COME TO YE
  • 5. ANCE MAIR I HAIL THEE
  • 6. WHEN I WAS A MAID
  • 7. ROW GENTLY HERE
  • 8. AT NIGHT
  • 9. SILENT, O MOYLE
  • 10. WHEN THROUGH THE PIAZZETTA
  • 11. THEIR GROVES O’ SWEET MYRTLE
  • 12. THE CATRINE WOODS (1)
  • 13. THO’ WOMEN’S MINDS
  • 14. COME, TAKE THE HARP
  • 15. WHAT CAN A YOUNG LASSIE
  • 16. BY YON CASTLE WA’
  • 17. YOUNG JAMIE
  • 18. HOW DEAR TO ME THE HOUR (1)
  • 19. OH! NO—NOT E’EN WHEN FIRST WE LOVED
  • 20. NIGHTS OF MUSIC
  • 21. OF A’ THE AIRTS THE WIND CAN BLAW
  • 22. WHEN THRO’ LIFE UNBLEST WE ROVE
  • 23. AE FOND KISS
  • 24. MY LUVE IS LIKE A RED, RED ROSE
  • 25. THE SMALL BIRDS REJOICE
  • 26. I DREAM’D I LAY WHERE FLOW’RS (1)
  • 27. LOVELY YOUNG JESSIE
  • 28. FAREWELL TO THE HIGHLANDS
  • 29. THOU EMBLEM OF FAITH
  • 30. THEY CAME FROM A LAND BEYOND THE SEA
  • 31. AT THE MID HOUR OF NIGHT
  • 32. IF SADLY THINKING
  • 33. QUICK! WE HAVE BUT A SECOND
  • 34. O STAY, SWEET WARBLING WOODLARK
  • 35. GO, THEN—’TIS VAIN TO HOVER
  • 36. THOSE EVENING BELLS!
  • 37. MARY MORISON
  • 38. THE CATRINE WOODS (2)
  • 39. HOW DEAR TO ME THE HOUR (2)
  • 40. I DREAM’D I LAY WHERE FLOW’RS (2)
  • 41. THE GIRL I LOVE
  • 42. WE MAY ROAM THROUGH THIS WORLD
  • 43. COME, MAY, WITH ALL THY FLOWERS
  • 44. OH! HAD WE SOME BRIGHT LITTLE ISLE
  • 45. AS VANQUISHED ERIN
  • 46. THE DAY RETURNS
  • 47. AH, ME! WHEN SHALL I MARRY ME?
  • 48. THE KISS, DEAR MAID, THY LIP HAS LEFT
  • 49. THE YOUNG ROSE
  • 50. I’D MOURN THE HOPES
  • 51. OH! BREATHE NOT HIS NAME (1)
  • 52. WHEN HE WHO ADORES THEE
  • 53. FLY NOT YET
  • 54. LOVE’S YOUNG DREAM
  • 55. WHEN SPRING BEGEMS THE DEWY SCENE
  • 56. LESBIA HATH A BEAMING EYE
  • 57. AVENGING AND BRIGHT
  • 58. O BONIE WAS YON ROSY BRIER
  • 59. WHEN THOU SHALT WANDER
  • 60. KATE KEARNEY
  • 61. OH! BREATHE NOT HIS NAME (2)
  • 62 AWA’ WI’ YOUR WITCHCRAFT
  • 63. COME, REST IN THIS BOSOM
  • 64. THOU FAIR ELIZA
  • 65. OH! WEEP FOR THE HOUR
  • 66. LET ERIN REMEMBER
  • 67. KITTY OF COLERAINE
  • 68. THE MINSTREL BOY
  • 69. ERIN, O ERIN!
  • 70. HARK! THE VESPER HYMN IS STEALING
  • 71. FAREWELL!—BUT WHENEVER
  • 72. ERIN! THE TEAR AND THE SMILE IN THINE EYES
  • Editorial Notes
  • Editions and numbering
  • Performance
  • Variety
  • Instrumentation
  • Duets/trios/quartets
  • Cadenzas
  • The texts
  • Approach to Thomas Moore
  • Other poets
  • Criticism of the texts
  • Re-texting the songs
  • The airs
  • Sources of the airs
  • Irish or Scottish?
  • Sources frequently referred to in the notes
  • Editorial issues
  • The songs
  • Appendix 1: Titles of the Songs in WoO and Hess
  • Appendix 2: Tempi of the Songs
  • Appendix 3: Keys, Time-signatures and Suggested Voice(s)
  • Biographies

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Acknowledgements

I would like to express Tomas Ó Súilleabháin’s and my appreciation of the people who made this project possible: the directors and staff of the following libraries: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, Berlin; DIT Library, Rathmines, Dublin 6; The National Library of Ireland, Kildare St, Dublin 2; Dublin City Library and archive, Pearse St, Dublin 2; also Professor Barry Cooper for kind permission to use his chronological catalogue of Beethoven’s folksong settings in his publication: Beethoven’s Folksong Settings: Chronology, Sources, Style (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994); Andrew Robinson, for typesetting the songs, for his wisdom, enthusiasm and support; Jenny Costello and Katie Ellen Costello for assiduous reading and proofing of the texts of the songs; the staff and students of DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, Dublin, for their artistry, enthusiasm and generosity of time in recording the Beethoven’s Irish Songs Revisited 4-CD set in 2013–2014; Dr Kerry Houston, for ongoing interest, advice and support, and for instigating and producing the complete recording of the songs; the family of Tomás Ó Súilleabháin for unstinting emotional and financial support which made both the recording and this publication of Beethoven’s Irish Songs Revisited possible; Dan Farrelly of Carysfort Press for his belief in the project and for invaluable editorial advice and support in bringing it all together.

Margaret O’Sullivan Farrell

| ix →

KERRY HOUSTON

Introduction

Details

Pages
X, 192
Publication Year
2019
ISBN (PDF)
9781788746441
ISBN (ePUB)
9781788746458
ISBN (MOBI)
9781788746465
ISBN (Softcover)
9781788746434
DOI
10.3726/b14608
Language
English
Publication date
2018 (December)
Keywords
Beethoven’s Irish folksong settings Newly-assigned texts Voice and piano
Published
Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, New York, Wien, 2019. X, 192 pp
Product Safety
Peter Lang Group AG

Biographical notes

Tomás Ó Súilleabháin (Author) Margaret O'Sullivan Farrell (Author)

Tomás Ó Súilleabháin (1919-2012) from Doneraile, Co. Cork, was a civil servant for all of his working life, but he had a parallel musical and literary career of considerable influence and versatility lasting more than sixty years. A baritone, he sang in many Radio Éireann broadcasts of original works and Irish folksong arrangements by composers Seoirse Bodley, Brian Boydell, Frederick May, Geoffrey Molyneux Palmer, Seán Ó Riada and others. Many of these performances were premieres and had been composed especially for Tomás, who often collaborated with the composer by sourcing and translating texts. Referring to this collaboration with emerging Irish composers, the musicologist and author, Axel Klein, in The Life and Music of Brian Boydell (2004), described Tomás as «one of the most important champions of contemporary Irish music». Margaret O’Sullivan Farrell studied piano with Elizabeth Costello at the Dublin Municipal School of Music where she was awarded the top prize, the Lorcan Sherlock Gold Medal for advanced piano performance. She went on to study for the BMus Degree at UCD. While there she conducted the St Stephen’s Singers madrigal group in concerts, festivals, broadcasts and competitions. She specialised in piano accompaniment and duo playing, as well as becoming a lecturer in Keyboard Studies at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, a post she held from 1980-2011. Margaret has appeared in concert with many eminent instrumentalists and singers and has broadcast extensively with them on RTE radio and television, on UTV and on BBC Northern Ireland. She was executive producer of a recording of Beethoven’s Irish songs Revisited by staff, students and alumni of the DIT Conservatory in 2014.

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Title: Beethoven’s Irish Songs Revisited