ABSTRACT
This chapter breaks new ground in documenting traces of the Lied in nineteenth-century Ireland within the context of the musical culture of the period. The visit of Franz Liszt to Ireland during his second concert tour of the British Isles signalled the introduction of the Lied to Irish audiences. Local singers, amateurs and professionals, members of musical societies, took part in domestic music making and public concerts. Some celebrated female instrumentalists also gave concerts in Ireland during the second half of the nineteenth century. In the last decade of the century the National Literary Society and the Gaelic League promoted Irish music as an essential part of the Gaelic revival, and patriotic songs replaced sentimental ballads and operatic arias on concert programmes. In the twentieth century Irish composers Ina Boyle, Dorothy Parke, Rhoda Coghill, Joan Trimble and Elizabeth Maconchy have enriched the vocal repertoire with song cycles and solo songs.
