John Ireland (composer)
Encyclopedia
John Nicholson Ireland (13 August 1879 – 12 June 1962) was an English composer.
, near Altrincham
, Manchester, into a family of Scottish descent and some cultural distinction. His father, Alexander Ireland, a publisher and newspaper proprietor, was aged 70 at John's birth. John was the youngest of the five children of Alexander's second marriage (his first wife had died). His mother, Annie née Nicholson, was 30 years younger than Alexander. She died in October 1893, when John was 14, and Alexander died the following year, when John was 15. John Ireland was described as "a self-critical, introspective man, haunted by memories of a sad childhood".
By that time he had entered the Royal College of Music
. He studied piano and organ there, and later composition under Charles Villiers Stanford
. He subsequently became a teacher at the College himself, his pupils including Richard Arnell
and Ernest John Moeran
(who both admired him); Benjamin Britten
(who found Ireland's teaching less interesting); the socialist composer Alan Bush
; Geoffrey Bush
(no relation to Alan), who subsequently edited or arranged many of Ireland's works for publication; and Anthony Bernard
. He was sub-organist at Holy Trinity Sloane Street
, London SW1, and later became organist and choirmaster at St. Luke's Church, Chelsea.
Ireland began to make his name in the early 1900s as a composer of songs and chamber music. His Violin Sonata No. 1 of 1909 won first prize in an international competition organised by the well-known patron of chamber music W. W. Cobbett. Even more successful was the premiere of his Violin Sonata No. 2, which drew crowds to the Wigmore Hall
in London and attracted the interest of a number of publishers, including one who arrived on Ireland's doorstep the morning after the concert.
Ireland frequently visited the Channel Islands
and was inspired by their landscape. In 1912 he composed the piano piece The Island Spell while staying on Jersey, and his Sarnia for piano was written there in 1940. He was evacuated from the islands just before the German invasion during World War II.
John Ireland was a lifelong bachelor, except for a brief interlude when, in quick succession, he married, separated, and divorced. On 17 December 1926, aged 47, he married a 17-year pupil, Dorothy Phillips. This marriage was dissolved on 18 September 1928, and it is believed not to have been consummated. He took a similar interest in another young student, Helen Perkin (1909–1996), a pianist and composer, to whom he dedicated both the Piano Concerto in E flat and the Legend for piano and orchestra (which began life as a second concerto). She gave the premiere performance of both works, but any thoughts he had for a deeper relationship with her came to nothing when she married George Mountford Adie, a disciple of George Gurdjieff, and she later moved with Adie to Australia. Consequently, Ireland withdrew the dedications. In 1947 Ireland acquired a personal assistant and companion, Mrs Norah Kirkby, who remained with him till his death. Despite these associations with women, various commentators read homoerotic references in his songs and other works.
On 10 September 1949, his 70th birthday was celebrated in a special Prom concert
, at which his Piano Concerto was played by Eileen Joyce
, who was also the first pianist to record the concerto, in 1942.
Ireland retired in 1953, settling in the small hamlet of Rock in Sussex
, where he lived in a converted windmill
for the rest of his life.
He died at age 82 in Washington
, Sussex of heart failure. He is buried in Shipley
churchyard near his home.
, Brahms
and other German classical composers, but as a young man he was also strongly influenced by Debussy
and Ravel
as well as by the earlier works of Stravinsky
and Bartók
. From these influences, he developed his own brand of "English Impressionism
", related more closely to French and Russian models than to the folk-song style then prevailing in English music.
Like most other Impressionist composers, Ireland favoured small forms and wrote neither symphonies nor operas, although his Piano Concerto is among his best works. His output includes some chamber music and a substantial body of piano works, including his best-known piece The Holy Boy
, known in numerous arrangements. His songs to poems by A. E. Housman
, Thomas Hardy
, Christina Rossetti
, John Masefield
, Rupert Brooke
and others, are a valuable addition to English vocal repertoire, and in the opinion of some are among the best of English art song. Due to his job at St Luke's Church, he also wrote hymns, carols, and other sacred choral music; among choirs he is probably best known for the anthem Greater love hath no man, often sung in services that commemorate the victims of war. The hymn tune My Song Is Love Unknown
is sung in churches throughout the English-speaking world. His Communion Service in C is also performed. He appears as pianist in a recording of his Fantasy Sonata for Clarinet and Piano with Frederick Thurston
, and his Violin Sonata No. 1 (of 1909) with Frederick Grinke
, who performed and recorded several of his chamber works.
Ireland also wrote the score for the Australian film The Overlanders
(his only film score), from which an orchestral suite was extracted posthumously by Charles Mackerras
. Some of his pieces, such as the popular A Downland Suite and Themes from Julius Caesar, were completed or re-transcribed after his death by his student Geoffrey Bush
.
Conductor Martin Yates
has released a 2011 recording (on the Dutton Epoch label) of his orchestration of Sarnia: An Island Sequence.
Life
John Ireland was born in BowdonBowdon, Greater Manchester
Bowdon is a suburban village and electoral ward in the Altrincham area of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester, England.-History:...
, near Altrincham
Altrincham
Altrincham is a market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on flat ground south of the River Mersey about southwest of Manchester city centre, south-southwest of Sale and east of Warrington...
, Manchester, into a family of Scottish descent and some cultural distinction. His father, Alexander Ireland, a publisher and newspaper proprietor, was aged 70 at John's birth. John was the youngest of the five children of Alexander's second marriage (his first wife had died). His mother, Annie née Nicholson, was 30 years younger than Alexander. She died in October 1893, when John was 14, and Alexander died the following year, when John was 15. John Ireland was described as "a self-critical, introspective man, haunted by memories of a sad childhood".
By that time he had entered the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
. He studied piano and organ there, and later composition under Charles Villiers Stanford
Charles Villiers Stanford
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was an Irish composer who was particularly notable for his choral music. He was professor at the Royal College of Music and University of Cambridge.- Life :...
. He subsequently became a teacher at the College himself, his pupils including Richard Arnell
Richard Arnell
Richard Anthony Sayer Arnell was an English composer of classical music. Arnell composed in all the established genres for the concert stage, and his list of works includes six completed symphonies and six string quartets.-Biography:Arnell was born in Hampstead, London...
and Ernest John Moeran
Ernest John Moeran
Ernest John Moeran was an English composer who had strong associations with Ireland .-Early life:...
(who both admired him); Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
(who found Ireland's teaching less interesting); the socialist composer Alan Bush
Alan Bush
Alan Dudley Bush was a British composer and pianist. He was a committed socialist, and politics sometimes provided central themes in his music.-Personal life:...
; Geoffrey Bush
Geoffrey Bush
Geoffrey Bush was a British composer, organist and scholar of 20th century English music.Geoffrey Bush was born in London, became a chorister at Salisbury Cathedral at the age of 8 and studied informally with the composer John Ireland...
(no relation to Alan), who subsequently edited or arranged many of Ireland's works for publication; and Anthony Bernard
Anthony Bernard
Anthony Bernard was an English conductor, organist, pianist and composer.-Early life:He was born Alan Charles Butler, the son of a Thames lighterman and changed his name by deed poll in 1919 according to the National Archives....
. He was sub-organist at Holy Trinity Sloane Street
Holy Trinity Sloane Street
Holy Trinity Sloane Street is a London Anglican parish church, built 1888-90 at the south-eastern side of Sloane Street to a striking Arts & Crafts design by the architect John Dando Sedding at the cost of the 5th Earl Cadogan, in whose London estate it lay...
, London SW1, and later became organist and choirmaster at St. Luke's Church, Chelsea.
Ireland began to make his name in the early 1900s as a composer of songs and chamber music. His Violin Sonata No. 1 of 1909 won first prize in an international competition organised by the well-known patron of chamber music W. W. Cobbett. Even more successful was the premiere of his Violin Sonata No. 2, which drew crowds to the Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in hosting performances of chamber music and is best known for classical recitals of piano, song and instrumental music. It is located at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK and was built to provide London with a venue that was both...
in London and attracted the interest of a number of publishers, including one who arrived on Ireland's doorstep the morning after the concert.
Ireland frequently visited the Channel Islands
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
and was inspired by their landscape. In 1912 he composed the piano piece The Island Spell while staying on Jersey, and his Sarnia for piano was written there in 1940. He was evacuated from the islands just before the German invasion during World War II.
John Ireland was a lifelong bachelor, except for a brief interlude when, in quick succession, he married, separated, and divorced. On 17 December 1926, aged 47, he married a 17-year pupil, Dorothy Phillips. This marriage was dissolved on 18 September 1928, and it is believed not to have been consummated. He took a similar interest in another young student, Helen Perkin (1909–1996), a pianist and composer, to whom he dedicated both the Piano Concerto in E flat and the Legend for piano and orchestra (which began life as a second concerto). She gave the premiere performance of both works, but any thoughts he had for a deeper relationship with her came to nothing when she married George Mountford Adie, a disciple of George Gurdjieff, and she later moved with Adie to Australia. Consequently, Ireland withdrew the dedications. In 1947 Ireland acquired a personal assistant and companion, Mrs Norah Kirkby, who remained with him till his death. Despite these associations with women, various commentators read homoerotic references in his songs and other works.
On 10 September 1949, his 70th birthday was celebrated in a special Prom concert
The Proms
The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...
, at which his Piano Concerto was played by Eileen Joyce
Eileen Joyce
Eileen Alannah Joyce CMG was an Australian pianist whose career spanned more than 30 years. She lived in England in her adult years....
, who was also the first pianist to record the concerto, in 1942.
Ireland retired in 1953, settling in the small hamlet of Rock in Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, where he lived in a converted windmill
Rock Mill, Washington
Rock Mill is a Grade II listed smock mill at Washington, West Sussex, England which has been converted to residential use.-History:Rock Mill was built in 1823. The mill was working at the outbreak of the First World War but was converted to a house in about 1919, using the machinery as decoration....
for the rest of his life.
He died at age 82 in Washington
Washington, West Sussex
Washington is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It is located five miles west of Steyning and three miles east of Storrington on the A24 between Horsham and Worthing. The parish covers an area of 1,276 hectares...
, Sussex of heart failure. He is buried in Shipley
Shipley, West Sussex
Shipley is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies just off the A272 road six miles north east of Storrington....
churchyard near his home.
Music
From Charles Villiers Stanford, Ireland inherited a thorough knowledge of the music of BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
and other German classical composers, but as a young man he was also strongly influenced by Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
and Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
as well as by the earlier works of Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
and Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
. From these influences, he developed his own brand of "English Impressionism
Impressionist music
Impressionism in music was a tendency in European classical music, mainly in France, which appeared in the late nineteenth century and continued into the middle of the twentieth century. Similarly to its precursor in the visual arts, musical impressionism focuses on a suggestion and an atmosphere...
", related more closely to French and Russian models than to the folk-song style then prevailing in English music.
Like most other Impressionist composers, Ireland favoured small forms and wrote neither symphonies nor operas, although his Piano Concerto is among his best works. His output includes some chamber music and a substantial body of piano works, including his best-known piece The Holy Boy
The Holy Boy
"The Holy Boy" is a short composition by the English composer John Ireland which, alongside the hymn "My song is love unknown", is probably his best-known work...
, known in numerous arrangements. His songs to poems by A. E. Housman
A. E. Housman
Alfred Edward Housman , usually known as A. E. Housman, was an English classical scholar and poet, best known to the general public for his cycle of poems A Shropshire Lad. Lyrical and almost epigrammatic in form, the poems were mostly written before 1900...
, Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
, Christina Rossetti
Christina Rossetti
Christina Georgina Rossetti was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems...
, John Masefield
John Masefield
John Edward Masefield, OM, was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1930 until his death in 1967...
, Rupert Brooke
Rupert Brooke
Rupert Chawner Brooke was an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War, especially The Soldier...
and others, are a valuable addition to English vocal repertoire, and in the opinion of some are among the best of English art song. Due to his job at St Luke's Church, he also wrote hymns, carols, and other sacred choral music; among choirs he is probably best known for the anthem Greater love hath no man, often sung in services that commemorate the victims of war. The hymn tune My Song Is Love Unknown
My Song Is Love Unknown
My Song Is Love Unknown is a hymn by Samuel Crossman, written in 1664.The hymn tune to which it is usually sung is Love Unknown by John Ireland...
is sung in churches throughout the English-speaking world. His Communion Service in C is also performed. He appears as pianist in a recording of his Fantasy Sonata for Clarinet and Piano with Frederick Thurston
Frederick Thurston
Frederick John Thurston was an English clarinettist.From the age of 7 he was taught by his father and he won an open scholarship to the Royal College of Music, becoming a pupil of Charles Draper...
, and his Violin Sonata No. 1 (of 1909) with Frederick Grinke
Frederick Grinke
Frederick Grinke was a Canadian-born violinist who had an international career as soloist, chamber musician and teacher...
, who performed and recorded several of his chamber works.
Ireland also wrote the score for the Australian film The Overlanders
The Overlanders (film)
The Overlanders is a 1946 Australian-British film about drovers droving a large herd of cattle 1600 miles overland from Wyndham in Western Australia through the Northern Territory outback of Australia to pastures north of Brisbane, Queensland during World War II.The film was one of several produced...
(his only film score), from which an orchestral suite was extracted posthumously by Charles Mackerras
Charles Mackerras
Sir Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras, AC, CH, CBE was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan...
. Some of his pieces, such as the popular A Downland Suite and Themes from Julius Caesar, were completed or re-transcribed after his death by his student Geoffrey Bush
Geoffrey Bush
Geoffrey Bush was a British composer, organist and scholar of 20th century English music.Geoffrey Bush was born in London, became a chorister at Salisbury Cathedral at the age of 8 and studied informally with the composer John Ireland...
.
Conductor Martin Yates
Martin Yates
Martin Yates is a British conductor.Studied at the Royal College of Music and Trinity College of Music, London where his teachers included Bernard Keeffe , Richard Arnell , Ian Lake, Jakob Kaletsky & Alan Rowlands and Douglas Moore & John Burden .Conducting debut 1983 with Israel National Opera...
has released a 2011 recording (on the Dutton Epoch label) of his orchestration of Sarnia: An Island Sequence.
Chamber works
- Fantasy-Sonata for clarinet and piano
- The Holy Boy: A Carol of the Nativity for cello and piano
- The Holy Boy: A Carol of the Nativity for string quartet
- Phantasie, Trio No. 1 in A minor for violin, cello and piano
- Sextet for clarinet, horn and string quartet (1898)
- Sonata in G minor for cello and piano (1923)
- Sonata No. 1 in D minor for violin and piano
- Sonata No. 2 in A minor for violin and piano (1915–1917)
- String Quartet No. 1 in D minor
- String Quartet No. 2 in C minor
- Trio No. 2 in One Movement for violin, cello and piano (1917)
- Trio No. 3 in E for violin, cello and piano
- Trio in d minor for clarinet, cello and piano (1912–1914)
Church music
- Benedictus in F
- Communion service in C
- Evening Service in F
- Greater love hath no man (motet)
- The Hills (chorus a capella)
- My Song Is Love UnknownMy Song Is Love UnknownMy Song Is Love Unknown is a hymn by Samuel Crossman, written in 1664.The hymn tune to which it is usually sung is Love Unknown by John Ireland...
(hymn) - Te Deum in F
- Vexilla Regis (anthem)
- Ex Ore Innocentium (treble voices and organ or piano)
Orchestra
- Comedy Overture
- Concertino Pastorale (string orchestra)
- Downland Suite
- Epic March
- Holy Boy (string orchestra)
- London Overture
- Mai-Dun
- Meditation on John Keble's Rogation Hymn
- Orchestral Poem
- Poem
- Satyricon – Overture
- Symphonic Rhapsody
- Symphonic Studies
- Two Symphonic Studies
Organ
- Alla marcia
- Capriccio
- Elegiac Romance
- Holy Boy
- Meditation on John Keble's Rogation Hymn
- Miniature Suite
- Sursum corda
- Elegy (from Downlands Suite – arr. Alec Rowley)
- Epic March (arr.Robert Gower)
- Marcia Popolare
Piano
- The Almond Tree (1913)
- Ballad of London Nights (1930)
- Ballade (1931)
- Columbine (1949)
- The Darkened Valley (1920)
- Decorations (1912–13)
- The Island Spell
- Moonglade
- The Scarlet Ceremonies
- Equinox (1922)
- Green Ways – Three Lyric Pieces (1937)
- The Cherry Tree
- Cypress
- The Palm and May
- In Those Days (1895)
- Daydream
- Meridian
- Indian Summer (1932)
- Leaves from a Child's Sketchbook (1918)
- By the Mere
- In the Meadow
- The Hunt's Up
- London Pieces (1917–20)
- Chelsea Reach
- Ragamuffin
- Soho Forenoons
- Merry Andrew (1919)
- Month's Mind (1935)
- On a Birthday Morning (1922)
- Prelude in E flat (1924)
- Preludes (1913–5)
- The Undertone
- Obsession
- The Holy Boy
- Fire of Spring
- Rhapsody (1915)
- Sarnia: An Island Sequence (1940–1)
- Le Catioroc
- In a May morning
- Song of the Springtides
- A Sea Idyll (1920)
- Soliloquy (1922)
- Sonata in E (1920)
- Sonatina (1926–7)
- Summer Evening (1920)
- The Towing Path (1918)
- Two Pieces (1921)
- For Remembrance
- Amberley Wild Brooks
- Two Pieces (1925)
- April
- Bergomask
- Two Pieces (1929–30)
- February's Child
- Aubade
- Three Dances (1913)
- Gypsy Dance
- Country Dance
- Reaper's Dance
- Three Pastels (1941)
- A Grecian Lad
- The Boy Bishop
- Puck's Birthday
Songs
- Bells of San Marie
- During Music
- Friendship in Misfortune
- Hawthorn Time
- The Heart's Desire
- Her Song
- Holy Boy
- Horn the Hornblower
- I have twelve oxen
- If there were dreams to sell
- If we must part
- Land of Lost Content (song cycle)
- Love and Friendship
- Mother & Child (song cycle)
- My true love hath my heart
- Salley Gardens
- Santa Chiara
- Sea-Fever
- Song from o'er the hill
- Songs of the Wayfarer (song cycle)
- Songs Sacred and Profane (song cycle)
- Spring sorrow
- Spring Will Not Wait
- Thomas Hardy Songs
- Three Ravens
- The Trellis
- Tryst (in Fountain Court)
- The Vagabond
- What art thou thinking of?
- When I am dead, my dearest
Other (unclassified)
- Bagatelle
- Bed in Summer
- Berceuse
- Brooks Equinox
- Cavatina
- Elegiac Meditation
- The Forgotten Rite
- Scherzo & Cortege
- Tritons
Further Reading
- The John Ireland Companion at Boydell & Brewer
External links
- The John Ireland Trust
- John Ireland, from an original broadcast by Ian Lace
- John Ireland discography