ABSTRACT
The intention of this book has been to concentrate on the expressive and extramusical qualities of Ireland’s music. Many of his works are clearly situated within a particular topical field, and it can been seen that ‘expressive considerations motivate compositional choices’ (Hatten, 1994: 1). Often the meaning of a piece is implicit in its title as well as in its internal musical characteristics. To revisit the six main topics of the book, Ireland was a practising Anglo-Catholic, who wrote functional church music, intended primarily for amateur performance. There are two main musical responses, the one prophetic, the other sweetly transcendent, and there is little sign of musical development from early to late pieces. He deploys a conscious ‘church’ style, one inherited from the Victorians, using a harmonic language that is a mixture of diatonicism and modality. Chords are in root position, melodic lines are simple, and word-setting syllabic. There is a fascination with Christ’s Passion, which inspired three anthems that have similar structures, with motivically related subsections. There is also a light music element in the organ music. The pagan Ireland was attracted to the work of writers, particularly Machen, who shared his interest in an indefinable ‘other-worldliness’. There are works that are musical evocations of Pan, using ternary structures in which a mood is established, a new world entered and the old one re-entered, now subtly altered. There are also narrative structures and gestural signals in the music. Common harmonic and melodic features include hovering second inversion chords and sliding parallel perfect fourths. There are aspects shared with the ‘country’ Ireland, notably bare fifths, though in the pagan topic there are added chromaticisms.
