Schola's 2023 (and 11th Annual!) St. Patrick's Day Program Notes
Many of this year's St. Patrick's Day musical selections are found on Schola's St. Patrick's album - available on iTunes, Spotify and more…
Quick link to music downloads….
CDs are available at Schola performances!
South Wind
This ‘slow air’ entitled "A Ghaoith ó nDeas" (Wind from the South) has been a part of the music of Counties Clare and Mayo since the late 1700s.
Billy Turney - accordion
Siúil a Rúin
Traditional Irish song
Arr. Michael McGlynn (Ireland, b.1964)
Go, my love.
Siúil a Rúin is a young woman’s lament for her lover who has left for fighting in a faraway land.
Sung by jackie Mattos / Denise Moore and Schola
In Dublin’s Fair City (aka Molly Malone)
Traditional Irish song and, by some accounts, the unofficial anthem of Dublin.
Chorus:
Alive, alive, alive-oh!
Alive, alive, alive-oh!
Crying cockles and muscles
Alive, alive, alive-oh!
The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond
Traditional Scottish Song
"You take the high road and I'll take the low road..." We can all sing along to "Loch Lomond," the old Scottish tune. But...this seemingly innocent tune was actually inspired by a dark chapter in Scottish history…
The song is connected with the Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland (the Scots earnest desire to return bonnie Prince Charlie as Scottish king) and the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden, the final serious battle of the war between Scotland and England.
Chorus:
Oh, you'll take the high road, and I'll take the low road
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye.
For me and my true love will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.
Sung by Jackie Mattos and Schola
Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine March / The Jimmy Allen Polka
Lucinda Sydow – accordion
Billy Turney – accordion
The Skye Boat Song
Traditional Scottish song
In the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden in April 1746 between the Scots and the English, Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) fled to the Isle of Skye in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Charlie fled in a boat disguised as Flora MacDonald’s Irish maid.
Chorus:
Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing,
“Onward,” the sailors cry.
Carry the lad that’s born to be King,
over the sea to Skye.
Sung by Cindi Stetson and Schola
Dúlamán
Traditional Irish song
Arr. Michael McGlynn (Ireland, b.1964)
This song, sung in Irish, is a story of two men who harvest seaweed – one harvests seaweed of the yellow peaks, the other harvests Gaelic seaweed. One of the men has a son, the other has a daughter – and the two young folks like each other. The fathers are talking…
Sung by Eric Brunn and Billy Turney
Fionnghuala
Traditional Irish Song
Arr. Michael McGlynn (Ireland, b.1964)
Fionnghuala derives from Irish mythology where Fionnghuala was the daughter of Lir. She was cursed by her stepmother, resulting in her taking the form of a swan and living for centuries in the cold and wet outdoors of Ireland.
Sung by Eric Brunn and Schola
Rattlin’ Bog
Irish Song
Rattlin’ means "splendid" in this tongue twister of a song.
Chorus:
O-ro the rattlin’ bog, the bog down in the valley-o,
O-ro the rattlin’ bog, the bog down in the valley-o.
Sung by Lucinda Sydow and Schola
INTERMISSION
Quisquis Eris (Illumination)
Michael McGlynn (Ireland, b.1964)
This message on a 17th century tombstone in the cemetery of St. Multose Cathedral, Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland, beseeches the passersby to pray for the soul of James Galwey who died in 1627: Whoever passes, stop, read this and weep. I am what you will be, I was what you are. I beseech you, pray for me.
Pie Jesu
Arr. Michael McGlynn (Ireland, b.1964)
Ireland's Michael McGlynn set these words from the Requiem Mass (“Precious Jesus, grant them eternal rest”) following the 1998 bombing in Omagh, N. Ireland.
Miserere Miseris
Medieval Irish chant
Arr. Michael McGlynn (Ireland, b.1964)
This Irish medieval chant, devoted to St. Mary, was first published in Ireland’s 14th century “Dublin Troper,” a collection of sacred songs initially housed in Dublin’s Christ Church. (Spoiler alert – Schola sang this beautiful piece of sacred music in Christ Cathedral in the summer of 2016!)
Have mercy on the suffering, fount of mercy. You bore the glorious prince in your great mercy. Greatest of our race, the new Ark of the Covenant, and the dawn of grace.
The Maid of Coolmore
Arr. Michael McGlynn (Ireland, b.1964)
An Irish ballad of a man singing about the woman he loves.
Coolmore (Culmore) is about two miles from Derry city in Northern Ireland, where the River Foyle widens into Lough Foyle. Coolmore was a departure point for emigrants.
This ballad from the 1800s tells the story of a young man who falls in love with a maid from Coolmore at first sight. And the second time he sees her she is boarding a sea vessel to leave Ireland. The young man vows to go to the wild parts of America and wonder endlessly to find his Maid of Coolmore.
Sung by Eric Brunn and Billy Turney
Jerusalem
Traditional Irish melody
Arr. Michael McGlynn (Ireland, b. 1964)
The original 1616 manuscript of “Jerusalem,” with its traditional Irish melody, is based on the writings of St. Augustine. The manuscript is inscribed “A song made by F.B.P. to the tune of DIANA.” F.B.P. is thought to be Francis Baker Pater, a Catholic priest who was confined in the tower of London about the time of James I.
It is sung in the style of heterophony.
Sung by the ladies of Schola
The Ash Grove / South Wind
Irish Waltzs
Lucinda Sydow – accordion
Billy Turney – accordion
Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go
Traditional Irish song
Francis McPeake (Belfast, Ireland, 1885–1971)
Chorus:
And we’ll all go together
To pluck wild mountain thyme
All around the blooming heather
Will ye go lassie, go?
Danny Boy
Traditional Irish Song
Arr. Michael McGlynn (Ireland, b.1964)
This beloved song hits home with its’ sentiments.
HAPPY SAINT PATRICK’S DAY FROM SCHOLA!
St. Patrick's Day 2023 Schola singers
Eric Brunn - baritone
Anna George - alto
Jackie Mattos - alto/soprano
Denise Moore - soprano
Susan Roller Whittington - alto
Lucinda Sydow - alto/soprano/accordion
Maestro Billy Turney - baritone/accordion