The Last Rose of Summer
Encyclopedia
The Last Rose of Summer is a poem by Irish
poet Thomas Moore
, who was a friend of Byron and Shelley
. Moore wrote it in 1805 while at Jenkinstown Park
in County Kilkenny, Ireland. Sir John Stevenson
set the poem to its widely-known melody, and this was published in a collection of Moore's work called Irish Melodies (1807–34). In Ireland, it is claimed that the melody was composed by George Alexander Osborne, a composer from Limerick City.
Ludwig Van Beethoven
composed Theme and Three variations for flute and piano, Op 105, based on the song late in his life.Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy composed a Fantasia in E major, Op. 15, based on the song (1827?, publ. London, 1830). Friedrich von Flotow
uses the song in his opera "Martha
," premiered in 1847 in Vienna. It is a favorite air ("Letzte Rose") of the character Lady Harriet. The interpolation works, and indeed the song helped popularize the opera. (According to the 1954 Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the opera grew from an 1844 ballet-pantomime, "Lady Henriette," for which Flotow wrote the music to Act One. Burgmuller and Deldevez wrote the rest of the music; "Lady Henriette" was produced in Paris.)
It has been arranged into a set of extremely difficult variations by Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst
for the violin.
The song is mentioned by James Joyce
in Ulysses
. It is also mentioned by Wilkie Collins in The Moonstone.
Opera singer Luisa Tetrazzini began with the song in her free public concert in the streets of San Francisco, California on Christmas Eve, 1910.
As well as being a common phrase, the poem is alluded to in the Grateful Dead
song "Black Muddy River".
Clannad released a rendition of the song on their album Crann Úll
. Sarah Brightman
recorded the song for her album The Trees They Grow So High
. It was made popular in the twenty-first century in a recording by Charlotte Church
and the Irish Tenors
.
It is sung in the musical group Celtic Woman
by Méav Ní Mhaolchatha and Hayley Westenra
. Chloë Agnew
's solo version is recorded on her self-titled album. In the Celtic Woman: A New Journey
tours, she sang duets with Ní Mhaolchatha, Westenra, and the vocalist-guitarist of the same group, Lynn Hilary
. Agnew and Hilary are performing the same version in the Isle Of Hope tour. Ní Mhaolchatha's solo version is included in her Celtic Journey album.
In the 1941 film Here Comes Mr. Jordan it is the character Joe Pendelton’s inability to play “The Last Rose of Summer” on his saxophone anything other than badly which allows him to prove that he is alive in another man’s body; all the other characters think he is the dead man from whom he got the body, but when he plays the sax for his old boxing manager, he uses the same wrong note in the melody as he always did, and which thus confirms his story of coming back from the after-life.
In the 16th (final) episode of the 6th season of the UK Channel 4 television show Shameless
, the song was sung by Jamie Maguire (played by Aaron McCusker
) at the funeral of his sister Mandy Maguire (Samantha Siddall
).
In the 1995 film An Awfully Big Adventure
, the song is used as P.L. O'Hara's theme music and is a recurrent musical motif in the film's score.
The song was featured in Ric Burns
' documentary series, New York: A Documentary Film
, broadcast on PBS in the USA.
The song was used in the game Endless Ocean: Blue World as the theme of the Depths area of the Zahhab Region. It is also playable on the jukebox that the player can purchase in-game.
Off their 1977 album "Sin After Sin
", Judas Priest
recorded a song entitled "Last Rose of Summer". Written by Rob Halford
and Glenn Tipton
, the song is all about "unyielding love".
A 1977 3 hr. Science Fiction BBC radio production written by Stephen Gallagher.
Fionnuala Sherry
of the New Instrumental
duo Secret Garden
released a version of the song titled "The Last Rose" on her solo debut album "Songs From Before
".
February 2011, the song was featured in FOX TV series,"The Chicago Code" Season 1 Episode 2, "Hog Butcher". This traditional Irish song was sung by Jason Bayle, as the uniformed officer during the memorial service of fallen Chicago police officer Antonio Betz.
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
poet Thomas Moore
Thomas Moore
Thomas Moore was an Irish poet, singer, songwriter, and entertainer, now best remembered for the lyrics of The Minstrel Boy and The Last Rose of Summer. He was responsible, with John Murray, for burning Lord Byron's memoirs after his death...
, who was a friend of Byron and Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...
. Moore wrote it in 1805 while at Jenkinstown Park
Jenkinstown Park
Jenkinstown Park is a park in County Kilkenny, Ireland. It is situated off the N78 road about 10 km north of the city of Kilkenny and 11 km south of Castlecomer.- Facilities :...
in County Kilkenny, Ireland. Sir John Stevenson
John Stevenson (composer)
Sir John Andrew Stevenson was an Irish composer of classical music. He is best known for his publications of Irish Melodies with poet Thomas Moore...
set the poem to its widely-known melody, and this was published in a collection of Moore's work called Irish Melodies (1807–34). In Ireland, it is claimed that the melody was composed by George Alexander Osborne, a composer from Limerick City.
Ludwig Van Beethoven
Ludwig 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...
composed Theme and Three variations for flute and piano, Op 105, based on the song late in his life.Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy composed a Fantasia in E major, Op. 15, based on the song (1827?, publ. London, 1830). Friedrich von Flotow
Friedrich von Flotow
Friedrich Adolf Ferdinand, Freiherr von Flotow was a German composer. He is chiefly remembered for his opera Martha, which was popular in the 19th century....
uses the song in his opera "Martha
Martha (opera)
Martha, oder Der Markt zu Richmond is a 'romantic comic' opera in four acts by Friedrich von Flotow, set to a German libretto by Friedrich Wilhelm Riese and based on a story by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges....
," premiered in 1847 in Vienna. It is a favorite air ("Letzte Rose") of the character Lady Harriet. The interpolation works, and indeed the song helped popularize the opera. (According to the 1954 Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the opera grew from an 1844 ballet-pantomime, "Lady Henriette," for which Flotow wrote the music to Act One. Burgmuller and Deldevez wrote the rest of the music; "Lady Henriette" was produced in Paris.)
It has been arranged into a set of extremely difficult variations by Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst
Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst
Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst was a Moravian-Jewish violinist, violist and composer. Ernst was widely seen as the outstanding violinist of his time and one of Paganini's greatest successors....
for the violin.
The song is mentioned by James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
in Ulysses
Ulysses (novel)
Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
. It is also mentioned by Wilkie Collins in The Moonstone.
Opera singer Luisa Tetrazzini began with the song in her free public concert in the streets of San Francisco, California on Christmas Eve, 1910.
As well as being a common phrase, the poem is alluded to in the Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
song "Black Muddy River".
Clannad released a rendition of the song on their album Crann Úll
Crann Úll
Crann Úll is the fifth album by Irish folk group Clannad released in 1980. It is also the first Clannad album to feature Eithne Ní Bhraonáin...
. Sarah Brightman
Sarah Brightman
Sarah Brightman is an English classical crossover soprano, actress, songwriter and dancer. She is famous for possessing a vocal range of over 3 octaves and singing in the whistle register...
recorded the song for her album The Trees They Grow So High
The Trees They Grow So High
The Trees They Grow So High is an album of folk songs sung by soprano Sarah Brightman with Geoffrey Parsons on piano...
. It was made popular in the twenty-first century in a recording by Charlotte Church
Charlotte Church
Charlotte Maria Church is a Welsh singer-songwriter, actress and television presenter. She rose to fame in childhood as a classical singer before branching into pop music in 2005. By 2007, she had sold more than 10 million records worldwide including over 5 million in the United States...
and the Irish Tenors
Irish Tenors
The Irish Tenors is the PBS musical singing trio from Ireland started in 1998 by a group of television producers for a of PBS special The Irish Tenors. They have since recorded 5 PBS specials and 7 albums...
.
It is sung in the musical group Celtic Woman
Celtic Woman
Celtic Woman is an all-female musical ensemble conceived and assembled by Sharon Browne and David Downes, a former musical director of the Irish stage show Riverdance...
by Méav Ní Mhaolchatha and Hayley Westenra
Hayley Westenra
Hayley Dee Westenra is a New Zealand soprano, classical crossover artist, songwriter and UNICEF Ambassador. Her first internationally released album, Pure, reached No. 1 on the UK classical charts in 2003 and has sold more than two million copies worldwide...
. Chloë Agnew
Chloë Agnew
Chloë Alexandra Adele Emily Agnew is an Irish singer who is one of the current members of the Celtic music group Celtic Woman as the youngest member. She comes from Knocklyon, County Dublin where she lived with her mother Adele "Twink" King and younger sister Naomi...
's solo version is recorded on her self-titled album. In the Celtic Woman: A New Journey
Celtic Woman: A New Journey
Celtic Woman: A New Journey is the second on-stage production by the group Celtic Woman. The show was filmed at Slane Castle in County Meath, Ireland and featured Hayley Westenra as a new addition to the group...
tours, she sang duets with Ní Mhaolchatha, Westenra, and the vocalist-guitarist of the same group, Lynn Hilary
Lynn Hilary
Lynn Hilary is an Irish singer, guitarist, and songwriter. She also has performed as a featured soprano soloist in the all-female ensemble Celtic Woman.- Career :...
. Agnew and Hilary are performing the same version in the Isle Of Hope tour. Ní Mhaolchatha's solo version is included in her Celtic Journey album.
In the 1941 film Here Comes Mr. Jordan it is the character Joe Pendelton’s inability to play “The Last Rose of Summer” on his saxophone anything other than badly which allows him to prove that he is alive in another man’s body; all the other characters think he is the dead man from whom he got the body, but when he plays the sax for his old boxing manager, he uses the same wrong note in the melody as he always did, and which thus confirms his story of coming back from the after-life.
In the 16th (final) episode of the 6th season of the UK Channel 4 television show Shameless
Shameless
Shameless is a British television drama series set in Manchester on the fictional Chatsworth council estate. Produced by Company Pictures for Channel 4, the first seven-episode series aired weekly on Tuesday nights at 10pm from 13 January 2004...
, the song was sung by Jamie Maguire (played by Aaron McCusker
Aaron McCusker
Aaron McCusker is a Northern Irish actor most famous for playing Jamie Maguire in Channel 4's comedic drama series Shameless. He currently lives in Hale, Trafford....
) at the funeral of his sister Mandy Maguire (Samantha Siddall
Samantha Siddall
Samantha Siddall is an English actress, best known for playing Mandy Maguire in Shameless from 2004–2009, a role she briefly reprised for an episode in 2011...
).
In the 1995 film An Awfully Big Adventure
An Awfully Big Adventure
An Awfully Big Adventure is a 1995 British coming-of-age film directed by Mike Newell. The story focuses on a teenage girl who joins a seedy theatre troupe in Liverpool...
, the song is used as P.L. O'Hara's theme music and is a recurrent musical motif in the film's score.
The song was featured in Ric Burns
Ric Burns
Ric Burns is an American documentary filmmaker and writer. He has written, directed and produced historical documentaries for nearly 20 years, beginning with his collaboration on the celebrated PBS series The Civil War , which he produced with his older brother Ken Burns and wrote with Geoffrey C...
' documentary series, New York: A Documentary Film
New York: A Documentary Film
New York: A Documentary Film is an eight-part, 17½ hour, American documentary film on the history of New York City. It was directed by Ric Burns and originally aired in the U.S. on PBS. The film was a co-production of Thirteen New York and WGBH Boston....
, broadcast on PBS in the USA.
The song was used in the game Endless Ocean: Blue World as the theme of the Depths area of the Zahhab Region. It is also playable on the jukebox that the player can purchase in-game.
Off their 1977 album "Sin After Sin
Sin After Sin
Sin After Sin is the third album by British heavy metal group Judas Priest, released in 1977. It was the band's first album on Columbia Records after their contract with Gull Records was terminated, as a consequence of which they lost all rights to Rocka Rolla and Sad Wings of Destiny, and any...
", Judas Priest
Judas Priest
Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, England, formed in 1969. The current line-up consists of lead vocalist Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis. The band has gone through several drummers over the years,...
recorded a song entitled "Last Rose of Summer". Written by Rob Halford
Rob Halford
Robert John Arthur "Rob" Halford is an English singer-songwriter, who is best known as the lead vocalist for the Grammy Award-winning heavy metal band Judas Priest. He is nicknamed the "Metal God" as a tribute to his influence on metal, and after the Judas Priest song of the same name from 1980's...
and Glenn Tipton
Glenn Tipton
Glenn Tipton is one of the Grammy Award-winning guitarists for the heavy metal band Judas Priest...
, the song is all about "unyielding love".
A 1977 3 hr. Science Fiction BBC radio production written by Stephen Gallagher.
Fionnuala Sherry
Fionnuala Sherry
Fionnuala Sherry is an Irish violinist and vocalist. She makes up the female part of the New Instrumental duo Secret Garden, which won the Eurovision Song Contest 1995 with the predominantly instrumental piece "Nocturne".-Background:...
of the New Instrumental
New Age music
New Age music is music of various styles intended to create artistic inspiration, relaxation, and optimism. It is used by listeners for yoga, massage, meditation, and reading as a method of stress management or to create a peaceful atmosphere in their home or other environments, and is often...
duo Secret Garden
Secret Garden (duo)
Secret Garden is an award-winning Irish-Norwegian duo playing New Instrumental Music, also sometimes erroneously known as Neo-classical music.Secret Garden features the Irish violinist Fionnuala Sherry and the Norwegian composer/pianist Rolf Løvland...
released a version of the song titled "The Last Rose" on her solo debut album "Songs From Before
Songs from Before
Songs From Before is the solo debut from Fionnuala Sherry of the New Instrumental duo Secret Garden. The album was self released in Ireland in November 2010. and was released in June 2011 in North America by Hearts of Space Records, an independent record label owned by Valley Entertainment...
".
February 2011, the song was featured in FOX TV series,"The Chicago Code" Season 1 Episode 2, "Hog Butcher". This traditional Irish song was sung by Jason Bayle, as the uniformed officer during the memorial service of fallen Chicago police officer Antonio Betz.