A Purse of Gold: Irish Songs by Herbert Hughes

£12.69

In stock - available for despatch within 1 working day

Label: Signum

Cat No: SIGCD106

Barcode: 0635212010624

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Vocal/Choral

Release Date: 29th October 2007

About

Despite the tradition of passing folk songs from generation to the next, aurally, the Irish folk song had lost its importance somewhat in 19th century Ireland, but by the turn of the 20th century the revival of Ireland's native music was coming to a head.

Belfast-born Herbert Hughes set about collecting and distributing Irish airs. From there he began arranging the melodies for voice and piano, but at a lecture in Dublin pointed out the relationship between the original song, as sung by 'the peasant, giving voice to an ancient tradition' and the same song as put into print with a piano accompaniment.

This original disc brings together both the old and the new, transforming the traditional folk song into an 'art-song.' The 25 folk songs tell of stories both happy and sad and make this disc as much a literary landscape, as a musical one with words by Thomas Moore & James Joyce.

Beautifully performed by Ailish Tynan and Iain Burnside. Irish soprano, Ailish Tynan has been awarded RTE Millennium Singer of the Future, won the Maggie Teyte and Cardiff Singer of the World Rosenblatt Recital Prizes in 2003 and is now a BBC New Generation Artist.

Track listing:
1. Reynardine
2. The Fanaid Grove
3. The Leprehaun
4. When through life unblest we rove
5. Oh, breathe not his name
6. I’m a decent good Irish body
7. She weeps over Rahoon
8. The Magpie’s nest
9. Johnny Doyle
10. Cruckhaun Finn
11. Johnny I hardly knew ye
12. The Gartan Mother’s Lullaby
13. You couldn’t stop a lover
14. I will walk with my love
15. She moved thro’ the fair
16. The Bard of Armagh
17. The old turf fire
18. O father, father build me a boat
19. B for Barney
20. She lived beside the Anner
21. The stuttering lovers
22. I know where I’m goin’
23. A young maid stood in her father’s garden
24. The Spanish Lady
25. Tigaree torum orum