ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the different ways in which British composers have found their imagination stimulated by and focuses on particular British islands, and attempts to express their fascination in musical terms. When contemplating the important part that islands have played in literature, children’s laureate Quentin Blake posed the suggestion that ‘there must be something that both focuses and stimulates the imagination in a place that you can draw a line round’. The first of Ireland’s Jersey pieces is The island spell, begun in 1911 and completed the following year during a halycon summer holiday on the east coast of the island. The central movement, In a May morning has equally complex extra-musical island connections. In April 1940 Ireland moved from the west coast of the island to the capital, St Peter Port, where he met a young boy, Michael Rayson.