Beethoven’s Irish Songs Revisited

Ó Súilleabháin, Tomás; O'Sullivan Farrell, Margaret

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)

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.

Excerpt

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

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KERRY HOUSTON

Introduction

Details

Pages: X, 192
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

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.

Beethoven’s Irish Songs Revisited

Summary

Excerpt

Table Of Contents

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Biographical notes

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