{"id":100,"date":"2016-04-09T16:39:28","date_gmt":"2016-04-09T16:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/erin\/?p=100"},"modified":"2022-03-09T22:01:17","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T22:01:17","slug":"the-irish-melodies-songs-that-still-speak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/erin\/2016\/04\/09\/the-irish-melodies-songs-that-still-speak\/","title":{"rendered":"THE IRISH MELODIES: SONGS THAT STILL SPEAK"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The Minstrel Boy from Irish Melodies Number 5<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thomas Moore\u2019s Irish Melodies are his best-known works. These 124 Irish tunes, arranged for voice and piano with newly-minted lyrics by Moore, were published in ten numbers between 1808 and 1834. The Gibson-Massie Moore collection evidences their popularity as domestic entertainment in the Romantic era with the multiple distinct imprints of each number (thirty for Number one alone) and in the multi-national circulation of Moore\u2019s lyrics (a topic for a future blog post). The series gained a renewed popularity in the Victorian period through the 1846 edition illustrated by Irish artist Daniel Maclise.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the most iconic of Moore\u2019s Melodies have become thoroughly ingrained in our modern culture. Foremost amongst these is The Minstrel Boy<\/i> from Number five. This is often associated specifically with the cause of Irish political freedom–for example as featured in \u2018Reflecting the Rising\u2019, the RT\u00c9 centenary concert to mark the 1916 Easter Rising–but which in brass band arrangement has also become a regular feature during the annual Remembrance Sunday service held at The Cenotaph in Whitehall, London in November to honour all who have suffered or died in war. The Minstrel Boy<\/i>, with its celebration of freedom and homage to brave personal sacrifice, has also been adopted by film-makers to mark or commemorate actions as diverse as those of the \u20181st<\/sup> United States Voluntary Calvary\u2019 in the Spanish-American War of 1898 (Rough Riders<\/i>, 1997), the American Invasion of Normandy in World War II (Saving Private Ryan<\/i>, 1998), and a failed US Army mission in Somalia during the early 1990s (Black Hawk Down<\/i>, 2001). It is Moore\u2019s poignant lyrics that have given the tune, \u2018The Moreen\u2019, this particular resonance:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Minstrel-Boy to the war is gone,<\/p>\n

In the ranks of death you\u2019ll find him;<\/p>\n

His father\u2019s sword he had girded on,<\/p>\n

And his wild harp slung behind him.<\/p>\n

\u2018Land of song!\u2019 said the warrior-bard,<\/p>\n

\u2018Tho\u2019 all the world betrays thee,<\/p>\n

\u2018One<\/i> sword, at least, thy rights shall guard,<\/p>\n

\u2018One<\/i> faithful harp shall praise thee!\u2019<\/p>\n

The Minstrel fell! \u2013 but the foeman\u2019s chain<\/p>\n

Could not bring his proud soul under;<\/p>\n

The harp he lov\u2019d ne\u2019er spoke again,<\/p>\n

For he tore its chords asunder;<\/p>\n

And said, \u2018No chains shall sully thee,<\/p>\n

\u2018Thou soul of love and bravery!<\/p>\n

\u2018Thy songs were made for the pure and free<\/p>\n

\u2018They shall never sound in slavery.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Are you aware of any arrangements or recordings of Moore\u2019s The Minstrel Boy<\/i>? If so, we would be delighted to learn of these through the comments page of this blog.<\/p>\n

Images Courtesy of Special Collections, The McClay Library, Queen\u2019s University Belfast<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thomas Moore\u2019s Irish Melodies are his best-known works. These 124 Irish tunes, arranged for voice and piano with newly-minted lyrics by Moore, were published in ten numbers between 1808 and 1834. The Gibson-Massie Moore collection evidences their popularity as domestic entertainment in the Romantic era with the multiple distinct imprints of each number (thirty for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,15],"tags":[82,120,186],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-irish-music","category-songs","tag-irish-melodies","tag-minstrel-boy","tag-thomas-moore"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa93ax-1C","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/erin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/erin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/erin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/erin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/erin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/erin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":836,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/erin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions\/836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/erin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/erin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/erin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}