IRISH MUSIC.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 31, 27 May 1876, Page 2

IRISH MUSIC.

[by enharmonia.]

It has been said that, in Irish music is | found the truest of all comments on Irish I history. " The tone of defiance succeeded j by the langour of despondency; a burst j of turbulence dying away into softness; I the sorrows of one moment lost in the ! levities of the next; and all that romantic j mixture of mirth and sadness which is ] naturally jiroduced by the effects of a L lively temperament, to shake off or forget ' the wrongs which lie upon it. Such are j the features of Irish history and character, t which we find strongly reflected in Irish j history music. In executing Irish music ; it should be borne in mind this j sadness, mixed with smiles, demands anything but the boisterous, rollicking, or warlike styles which are needed to interpret some of the music of Scotland and England. '•'Silent, 0, Moyle," the Irish ah-, "Arrah, my dear Eveleen," was set by Thomas Moore to words founded on the I story of Fionnuala. The following note by Moore to his poem : —" To intelligible in a song would require a jiumberof than anyone is authorised to millet"upon an audience at once. The reader must therefore be content to learn that Fionnuala, the daughter of Lir, was, by some supernatural power, transformed into a swan, and condemned to wander for many hundred years over certain lakes and rivers of Ireland, till the coming of Christianity, when the first sound of the massbell was to be the signal of her release. This fanciful fiction was found among Some manuscript translations from the Irish, which were begun under that enlightened friend of Ireland, the late Countess of Moira." The music is in the natural minor key, in simple common time, and moves gracefully : the cadences are nearly all chromatic. The beautiful setting of it for four voices, by G-. A. Macfarren, • is well worth the study of trained choirs.

"Rich and Rare were the Gems She Wore." This ballad is founded upon the following anecdote from " Warne's History of Ireland " :—The people were inspired with such a spirit of honour, virtue, and religion, by the great example of Brien and by his excellent administrations, that, as a proof of it, we are informed that a young lady of great beauty, adorned with jewels and a costly dress, undertook a journey alone, from one end of the kingdom to the other, with a wand only in her hand, at the toj> of which was a ring of exceeding great value ; and such an impression had the laws and Government of this monarch made on the minds of all the people, that no attempt was made upon her honour, nor was she robbed of her clothes or jewels. The air to which it is set, " The Summer is coming," is a very old tune, in triple time ; the notes of the third, fourth, and .sixth scale occur frequently, giving the tune effect. There are some awkward ..Tsaps from the higher to the lower mediant, which makes the song a difficult one to sing.