Ina Boyle - Songs (Various Artists)

Information

Composer: Ina Boyle

1. Since thou, O Fondest and Truest
2. The Joy of Earth
3. Three Songs by Walter de la Mare: I. Song of the Mad Prince
4. Three Songs by Walter de la Mare: II. The Pigs & the Charcoal Burner
5. Three Songs by Walter de la Mare: III. Moon, Reeds, Rushes
6. A Mountain Woman Asks for Quiet that her Child May Sleep
7. Looking Back: I. Carrowdore
8. Looking Back: II. All Souls’ Night
9. Looking Back: III. O ghost, That Has Gone
10. Looking Back: IV. The Mill-Water
11. Himself and his Fiddle
12. Have You Heard News of My Boy Jack?
13. Roses
14. A Soft Day, Thank God!
15. Eternity
16. Sleep Song
17. All Souls' Flower (A Chtistmas Carol)
18. Five Sacred Folksongs of Sicily: I. Eternal Love
19. Five Sacred Folksongs of Sicily: II. In the Desert
20. Five Sacred Folksongs of Sicily: III. The Yoke
21. Five Sacred Folksongs of Sicily: IV. Lord, in Love
22. Five Sacred Folksongs of Sicily: V. At the Altar
23. A Song of Shadows
24. A Song of Enchantment
25. The Bringer of Dreams
26. Longing
27. Dust
28. The Stolen Child
29. Blessing
30. They Went Forth
31. Two Christmas Songs: I. So Blyssid be the Tyme
32. Two Christmas Songs: II. Tyrle, Tyrlow, Tyrle, Tyrlow
33. The Last Invocation

Paula Murrihy, mezzo-soprano

Robin Tritschler, tenor

Ben McAteer, baritone

Iain Burnside, piano

Date: 2021

Label: Delphian

https://www.delphianrecords.com/products/ina-boyle-songs?_pos=1&_sid=ea2ca8f80&_ss=r

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Review

‘I think it is most courageous of you to go on with such little recognition. The only thing to say is that it does come finally.’ Many years on, Vaughan Williams’s supportive words to County Wicklow-born Ina Boyle (1889-1967) chime in resounding approval with the appearance of this uncommonly enterprising and exceedingly generous survey from Delphian. In a programme spanning nearly six decades, it accommodates around half of her entire song output (there are some 70 in all), and the finest offerings here leave the listener in little doubt as to Boyle’s scrupulous fidelity (to quote her good friend and fellow composer Elizabeth Maconchy) ‘to the mood and meaning underlying the words and to their shape and rhythm, never distorting them for musical effect, but allowing them to speak more fully through her music’.

In a number of items – most notably the song-cycle Looking Back, Three Songs by Walter de la Mare, ‘The Bringer of Dreams’ (to a text from Edith Sitwell’s ‘Yesterday’), George Herbert’s ‘Longing’ and Five Sacred Folksongs of Sicily – it’s not hard to detect the benign influence of RVW (Boyle took lessons with him intermittently from 1923), while her 1913 treatment of Walt Whitman’s ‘The Last Invocation’ and that pair of settings of de la Mare’s ‘A Song of Shadows’ and ‘A Song of Enchantment’ possess a very real sense of wonder and flexibility that are wholly captivating. Inspiration likewise runs high in ‘Himself and his Fiddle’, ‘A soft day, thank God!’, ‘All Souls’ Flower’, ‘They Went Forth’ and Two Christmas Songs – all of which have heaps of character, fresh-faced charm and personable warmth to commend them.

Performances throughout are exemplary, Paula Murrihy’s enchanting delivery of ‘Sleep Song’ (in Patrick Henry Pearse’s translation from the original Irish) being especially delectable – as, for that matter, is Robin Tritschler’s exquisitely deft way with the memorable setting of WB Yeats’s ‘The Stolen Child’. Vividly realistic sound, too. The knowledgeable annotation comes courtesy of Orla Shannon, and complete texts are included. Altogether a most rewarding voyage of discovery – and make sure you also check out Ronald Corp’s admirable pioneering recordings of Boyle’s First Symphony, Violin Concerto and Psalm for cello and orchestra on Dutton Epoch.

-- Andrew Achenbach, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2021/Sep/Boyle-songs-DCD34264.htm

https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/choral-song/ina-boyle-songs/

https://www.amazon.com/Ina-Boyle-Songs/dp/B0991BK9NW

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Ina Boyle (8 March 1889 – 10 March 1967) was an Irish composer who has been dubbed "the most prolific and significant female composer from Ireland before 1950". Her compositions encompass a broad spectrum of genres and include choral, chamber and orchestral works as well as opera, ballet and vocal music. While a number of her works, including The Magic Harp (1919), Colin Clout (1921), Gaelic Hymns (1923–24), Glencree (1924-27) and Wildgeese (1942), received acknowledgement and first performances, the majority of her compositions remained unpublished and unperformed during her lifetime.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ina_Boyle

https://www.inaboyle.org/

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