St. Patrick's Day Concert Featuring
AGO Milwaukee Chapter Members and Bagpipes
Nicholas Renkosik, Craig Sproat, & Benjamin Stone, Organists
Rob McWilliam, Bag Piper
Reception Post Concert
Freewill Offering
Notes about From the Gaelic: Ten Preludes on Irish Melodies, Op. 81 by Derek Healey
Derek Healey provided these notes in an email correspondence with Craig Sproat who will perform From the Gaelic: Ten Preludes on Irish Melodies, Op. 81 at the Saint Patrick’s Day Organ Concert on March 16th at 3:00 p.m. on the Pepper-Graves Memorial Pipe Organ of All Saints’ Cathedral, 818 E. Juneau Avenue, Milwaukee WI.
The composition of this set of preludes was a way as being a ‘thank-you’ to a friend and graduate composition student of mine, the organist, Albert Ahlstrom. Albert had been a great help to me in my move to Brooklyn in the Summer of 1996. He is very proud of his Irish ancestry and of Irish literature in particular, so I thought it only right to present him with a work based on folk material from that country. Many of the melodies I selected will probably be unknown to many people, with the exception of ‘Slane’ and ‘Bunessan’, but these melodies have a wonderfully strong construction and a very varied character.
Early on in the composition process I decided to write four preludes on ‘Slane’, one for each of the verses of the text ‘Lord of all Hopefulness’: day-break, noon, evening and the end of the day. I decided to use these verses as a spine, as it were, throughout the work; and would give the complete work a general dawn to dusk progression. The selection of the remainder of the melodies was made on account of the ‘chime’ it elicited in me.
As a respect to Albert’s intellect I decided to pull no punches in the techniques employed, there is much bi-tonality (modality) as well as use of the octotonic (diminished) scale. The set was worked-out in rough between September 3rd and the 12th 1996, being finally completed on November 27th of that year.
‘Slane I’: ‘Lord of all hopefulness’
The concept behind the first prelude is one centuries old, namely in that each line is displayed in an ornamented version followed by a repetition of the line in a more hymn-like manner. In the decorated lines I wished to evoke the technique of the traditional Irish penny-whistle which I accompanied by 4ths from a different key center. In the line’s repetition I used the technique of organum at the fifth but staggered by a beat or so, so that the melody harmonizes itself as it were; the bass part is free.
‘Bunessan‘: ‘Morning has broken’
I always considered the Lydian mode as having an early-morning feel to it and so the right hand accompanies the C major melody with Lydian clusters preceded by sixteenth-notes, the 8’ pedal has a counter-melody in B flat. The registration is bright to accent the exhilaration of early morning.
‘Caoineadh na marbh’: ‘Alas, grief at night and in the morning’
This is not strictly speaking a hymn tune, but rather a lament probably thousands of years old - it is a Coine, also known as the “Irish Cry’. The melody is in a low tenor range, accompanied by sustained chords built mainly on fourths.
‘Slane II’: ‘Lord of all eagerness’
The ‘noon’ verse makes much use of the octatonic scale (starting C, D flat, E flat) in the accompaniment. It is a vigorous movement making use of the Sarabande rhythm and with very active sixteenth-note gestures in the pedals.
‘Fanad Head’: ‘They are all gone into the world of light’
The fifth prelude is concerned with the life beyond and makes a good contrast to the previous movement. The countersubject, displayed in the left hand at the opening is a B Mixolydian as opposed to the hymn melody’s C minor. This flowing pastoral line makes much use of the 3-note set A, C sharp and D sharp, for which I have a particular fondness. The two melodies, which retain their key/modal centers consistently for most of the piece, give a calm other-worldly feel. The pedal makes its only appearance near the close in a slow stepwise descent.
‘Wexford Carol’ (Intermezzo): ‘Good people all, this Christmas-time’
After the seriousness of much of these pieces, the Wexford Carol arrangement (vivo) makes a marked contrast. The theme is lightly ornamented, and except for line three remains in the left hand. The prelude opens with an upward flourish, which also appears at the close, much use is made of staccato chords in the free voice.
‘Slane III’: ‘Lord of all kindliness’
The ‘evening’ verse of this hymn has a whole-tone feel to it, and, as before, much use is made of bi-tonality. The melody is mildly decorated in an elegiac manner in E flat, while the left hand moves gently stepwise centering on A, while the pedal moves slowly on whole-tone pitches down from C sharp.
‘Cormac’: ‘For the might of thine arm we bless thee’
This very vigorous prelude is mainly in a fast triple time, and the strong melody is, for the most part, undecorated. Very important are the frequent wave-like structure of the accompanying sixteenth notes; the work builds up to a climax in the closing measures with an active pedal display.
‘Peacefield’ (Divisions): ‘Jesus, Lord, we look to thee’
This set of variations, is in marked contrast to the fire of the previous prelude. Key to my concept of this prelude are the lines ‘Show thyself the Prince of Peace; Bid our strife forever cease’. There are five short variations in all: the first four all contain bi-tonality: one stave in C with the other in three flats. A general feeling of lightness prevails. The final variation, although commencing with all voices in E flat, gradually opens out as the bass voices gradually move lower, so that at the close these voices are in A major, while the melody remains in E flat.
‘Slane IV’: ‘Lord of all gentleness’
The final prelude is based on the last verse of ‘Lord of all Hopefulness’ which ends with the line ‘Your peace in our hearts, Lord, at the end of the day’. The right-hand melody commences above the stave, thereafter; each line moves into a lower octave. The accompaniment consists of second inversion major triads gradually moving by step a whole-tone lower; these sustained chords are consistently three and a third beats long, giving the prelude a bi-metric construction. The pedal does not make its appearance until the final E flat cadence.
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