Supplemental

Notes for the John Ireland Presentation

(anything is parentheses is something supplemental I will add thats not on the
PowerPoint)

John Ireland
Presentation by Jenny Bjoin

Who is John Ireland? (1879-1962)
An English composer, performer (of piano and organ), teacher,
Songs, piano works, and chamber music primarily
A private, sentimental, and emotional man who often felt insecure about his
professional life (He rarely shared much of his personal life openly, and he
often felt like he was never good enough or important enough.)
o (He was often self-critical and kept to himself)
A very nostalgic man who often wants to depart from the present and retreat
to the past (He saw the past as a happier place and wanted to return there.
Thus, we can see this theme in a lot of his music.)
Music represents his own biography and the emotions he experiences
throughout his life (So his music spans an extremely wide range of styles and
emotional responses, such as joy, intensity, lightness, and darkness.)

The Early Years
Grew up cultured in both writing and music (His father was very into writers
and writing, and was actually very good friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson.
He visited their house quite often. His mother played the piano, so she began
to teach him rhythm and melody through her piano playing.)
Started piano at age eight (and already began writing very short tunes)
Auditioned for the Royal College of Music at age 13/14 (He had snuck out,
traveled to London, auditioned, then snuck back in so his mom wouldnt
worry about him since her health had been deteriorating.)
His mother died a few months later
o His father died the following year, leaving him an orphan at age 14
(This led to him not remember his childhood fondly; it was almost like
he was a lost boy.)

Training
Frederic Cliffe
o Studied piano with for four years at the RCM beginning in 1893
Sir Walter Parratt
o Studied organ with (He was the organist at St. Georges Chapel at
Windsor)
Charles Villiers Stanford
o (Began to get more interested in composition, so he) Studied
composition with from 1897-1901 (Stanford could be pretty harsh

with his teaching methods, which was rough on the sensitive Ireland,
but later in life he was so thankful for Stanfords teaching)

Irelands Professional Career
(After studying at the RCM, he) Worked at St. Lukes in Chelsea from 1904-
1926 as the choirmaster and organist (He loved this job and was actually
hoping to return back to it later in life after hed retired)
Taught composition at RCM from 1920-1939
o (Students included Richard Arnell and Benjamin Britten- From the
accounts Ive read, he received differing reviews on accounts of his
teaching, some saying he was wonderful and others, like Britten,
saying he was an alcoholic, often drunk and very unreliable)
Mostly wrote songs and piano pieces, but small orchestra output (These
works include his Piano Concerto and A London Overture)
His music became its most popular in the 1920s (So, he began traveling
more, but was kind of a homebody. He liked being home in England and
missed it, so he didnt travel outside of Europe.)
o However, he didnt really receive any honors for his music and didnt
really get into any artistic circles (He wasnt much of an extrovert.)
He retired and stopped composing (He was probably happiest in his life
during this time.)

The Disastrous Marriage
In 1926, at the age of 47, he married his 17-year-old student, Dorothy Phillips
The story (So, the story goes that her work had been declining in her piano
lessons, so he asked her what was wrong. She broke into tears and told him
that life at home was horrible and that her father was so mean to her. She
asked him for help and asked if he could talk to her father, but he responded
that he was only her music teacher and didnt want to get between a father
and daughter. Later that day, he told her the only solution he could give her
was to marry her and take her away from the situation completely. They
were married right away, and he immediately regretted the decision, but
realized he was trapped. Ireland told a friend the next day that he hadnt
slept and that he must have been crazy to offer such a solution.) (However,
this is just one interpretation, as there is much mystery surrounding him
because he was so private. There also could have been feelings there for her
and he was going through a mid-life crisis.)
The marriage only lasted about a year, as they divorced in 1928. (He never
married again.)

Stylistic Traits
Doesnt really fit in a certain musical time period (Hes not really a part of the
British Musical Renaissance, but hes not one of the modernist composers
either. Ireland said that the older composers think Im too radical and on the

cutting edge, while the young ones think Im an old fuddy-duddy. He was
stuck in the middle. Hes most like an English Impressionist.)
Uses lots of symbolism, images, and hidden meanings
o Ties his music into a certain person or place in his life (He was very
influenced by nature, so some of his music represents Chelsea or the
English countryside. His music is very personal and was very personal
to his life.)
Main characteristics:
o Strong sense of structure and form (possibly an influence from his
composition teacher, Stanfords, workmanship-like attitude)
o Very personal poetry (with a sense of English lyricism)
Uses some chromatic harmonies, but the music is really rooted in the
Classical-Romantic tradition (Remember, he kept looking back to the past to
escape the present, because he thought that was a happier time)
Hard to narrow down his music to a type
o (Can be rural or urban, hurtful or joyful, serious or whimsical; he
writes all different sorts because his music seems to be biographical)

Well to the Woods no more (1927)
Song cycle (in three parts)
o I. Well to the woods no more
o II. In boyhood
o III. Spring will not wait
o (This particular cycle is unusual for Ireland, because the first two
pieces are for voice and piano, while the third piece is for piano solo)
Manuscript includes dedication to Arthur Miller (Miller was a choirboy who
Ireland dedicated a series of works to as birthday gifts. They had a very close
relationship, spending lots of time together and even vacationing together.
However, we dont know the nature of the relationship; we just know it was
very important to Ireland, as seen through how intense his music was at the
time. This cycle definitely could relate to the problems surrounding Irelands
sexuality.)
o To Arthur: in memory of the darkest days
A. E. Housmans Last Poems (The settings came from two of these poems.)
Creates a sense of nostalgia (As he goes back and takes quotations and ideas
from previous pieces of his, such as a quotation in the piano epilogue from A
Shropshire Lad, a poem hed already set as Hawthorn Time.)
All are quite connected harmonically, melodically, structurally, and
thematically

The Connection
Harmonically
o Stability to instability (All three pieces begin with a sense of stability
harmonically, then very quickly resort to a state of instability, with
wandering chromatics. For example, in the first song, it begins in the

Dorian mode, then quickly shifts to chromatics. It then ends on an

unstable D minor chord with an added minor 6th. The end of the entire
work also ends on this same chord.)
Melodically
o Motivic links (Some melodies or quotations are used throughout the
entire work. For example, In boyhood starts with the same chord
Well to the Woods no more ended on, but with a added 7 instead of
6, then takes a melody used in the first song on the bowrs are bare of
bay and uses it as its opening melody. The last six measures of the
first song are also quoted three times throughout the third song.)
Structurally
o The last measures laid out the same (The last measures of each piece
are in the format of a held chord, with notes in the bottom picked out
to play. In the first, its a falling fifth with a rising arpeggio, and the
second and third are just falling fifths.)
Thematically/Poetically
o Themes of pain, personal loss, fragile life, longing, and nostalgia (He
went back and took quotations from his other pieces, and what else
was going on in his life right now? Why would he have chosen these
texts at this time in his life? Does anyone remember what was
going on in his life at this time? (1927) Yes, he married the girl in
Dec. 1926, divorced in 1928- very unhappy- so these poems resonated
with him.)

Well to the woods no more
The first song of three in the song cycle
Poetry sources of Housmans Last Poems (he took the introductory lines, and
a translation of the French poem) Nous nirons plus au bois (which was a
nursery rhyme)
Notice:
o The stability to instability (especially in the piano part)
o The text (can you catch what some of the words are? Ill read the
poem to you afterward and well discuss how this relates to his life at
this time.)
Well to the Woods no more
The laurels all are cut,
The bowers are bare of bay
That once the Muses wore.
The year draws in the day
And soon will evening shut:
The laurels all are cut
Well to the woods no more.
Oh, well no more, no more
To the leafy woods away,
To the high wild woods of laurel

And the bowers of bay no more.

(A laurel is a small evergreen tree, also called bay)

(A bower is like a leafy shelter)

(Some symbolism of the imminence of death here? The year draws in the
day, and soon will evening shut: The laurels all are cut well be to the woods no
more.)

Reference List