Life
John Ireland was born in
BowdonBowdon is an affluent village and electoral ward in the Altrincham area of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester, England.-History:...
, near
AltrinchamAltrincham is a market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on flat ground south of the River Mersey about southwest of Manchester city centre, south-southwest of Sale and east of Warrington...
,
ManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. In 2007, the population of the city was estimated to be 458,100...
, into a family of
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
descent and some cultural distinction. His father, Alexander Ireland, a publisher and newspaper proprietor, was aged 70 at John's birth. John was the youngest of the five children of Alexander's second marriage (his first wife had died). His mother, Annie née Nicholson, was 30 years younger than Alexander. She died in October 1893, when John was 14, and Alexander died the following year, when John was 15. John Ireland was described as "a self-critical, introspective man, haunted by memories of a sad childhood".
By that time he had entered the
Royal College of MusicThe Royal College of Music is a conservatoire located in the South Kensington district of London, England.-Background:The Royal College of Music's building, designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield, is situated on Prince Consort Road in the district of South Kensington, next to Imperial College, directly...
. He studied piano and organ there, and later composition under
Charles Villiers StanfordSir Charles Villiers Stanford was an Irish composer, resident in England for much of his life.- Life :...
. He subsequently became a teacher at the College himself, his pupils including the socialist composer
Alan BushAlan Dudley Bush was a British composer and pianist.Bush was born in Dulwich, London, first attending Highgate School and then the Royal Academy of Music....
;
Geoffrey BushGeoffrey Bush was a British composer, organist and scholar of 19th century English music.Geoffrey Bush was born in London, became a chorister at Salisbury Cathedral at the age of 8 and studied informally with the composer John Ireland...
(no relation to Alan), who subsequently edited or arranged many of Ireland's works for publication;
Ernest John MoeranErnest John Moeran was an English composer.-Early life:Moeran was born in Heston , the son of an Irish clergyman...
(who admired him);
Benjamin BrittenEdward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, violist and pianist.-Life:...
(who found Ireland's teaching of less interest); and
Anthony BernardAnthony Bernard was an English conductor, organist, pianist and composer. He was born Alan Charles Butler, the son of a Thames lighterman and changed his name by deed poll in 1919 according to the National Archives....
. He was sub-organist at
Holy Trinity Sloane StreetHoly Trinity Sloane Street is a London anglican parish church, built 1888-90 at the south-eastern side of Sloane Street to a striking Arts & Crafts design by the architect John Dando Sedding at the cost of the 5th Earl Cadogan, in whose London estate it lay...
, London SW1, and later became organist and choirmaster at St. Luke's Church, Chelsea.
Ireland frequently visited the
Channel IslandsThe Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
and was inspired by their landscape. He was evacuated from them just before the German invasion during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
John Ireland was a lifelong bachelor, except for a brief interlude when, in quick succession, he married, separated, and divorced. On 17 December 1926, aged 47, he married a 17-year pupil, Dorothy Phillips. This marriage was dissolved on 18 September 1928, and it is believed not to have been consummated. He took a similar interest in another young student,
Helen PerkinGeorge Adie and Helen Adie were born in England, married about 1930, and became pupils of P.D. Ouspensky, then after his death in 1947, of G.I. Gurdjieff . George Adie was then invited to join the council of the newly established London group...
(1909-1996), a pianist and composer, to whom he dedicated both the
Piano Concerto in E flatThe Piano Concerto in E flat was John Ireland’s only concerto. It was composed in 1930, and given its first performance on 2 October of that year by its dedicatee, Helen Perkin , at a Promenade concert in the Queen's Hall...
and the
Legend for piano and orchestra (which began life as a second concerto). She gave the premiere performance of both works, but any thoughts he had for a deeper relationship with her came to nothing when she married
George Mountford AdieGeorge Adie and Helen Adie were born in England, married about 1930, and became pupils of P.D. Ouspensky, then after his death in 1947, of G.I. Gurdjieff . George Adie was then invited to join the council of the newly established London group...
, a disciple of
George GurdjieffGeorge Ivanovich Gurdjieff ; January 13, 1866? – October 29, 1949), was a Greek-Armenian mystic and spiritual teacher. He called his discipline "The Work" , or as he first referred to it, the Fourth Way.At one point he described his teaching as "esoteric Christianity".At...
, and she later moved with Adie to Australia. Consequently, Ireland withdrew the dedications. In 1947 Ireland acquired a personal assistant and companion, Mrs Norah Kirkby, who remained with him till his death. Despite these associations with women, various commentators read homoerotic references in his songs and other works.
On 10 September 1949, his 70th birthday was celebrated in a special
Prom concertThe Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in South Kensington, London...
, at which his Piano Concerto was played by
Eileen JoyceEileen Alannah Joyce CMG was an Australian pianist. Her career spanned over 30 years and took her to every continent. She lived in England in her adult years...
, who was also the first pianist to record the concerto, in 1942.
Ireland retired in 1953, settling in the small hamlet of Rock in
SussexSussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is a historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, where he lived in a
converted windmillRock Mill is a Grade II listed smock mill at Washington, West Sussex, England which has been converted to residential use.-History:Rock Mill was built in 1823. The mill was working until the start of World War I and converted to a house c1919, the machinery being used as decoration in the...
for the rest of his life.
He died at age 82 in
WashingtonWashington is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It is located five miles west of Steyning and three miles east of Storrington on the A24 between Horsham and Worthing. The parish covers an area of 1,276 hectares...
, Sussex of heart failure. He is buried in
ShipleyShipley is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies just off the A272 road six miles north east of Storrington....
churchyard near his home.
Music
From Charles Villiers Stanford, Ireland inherited a thorough knowledge of the music of
BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, of the Electorate of Cologne and...
,
BrahmsJohannes Brahms , German composer and pianist, was one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
and other German classical composers, but as a young man he was also strongly influenced by
DebussyAchille-Claude Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of Impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
and
RavelJoseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer of Impressionist music known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
as well as by the earlier works of
StravinskyIgor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor, widely acknowledged as one of the most important and influential composers of 20th century music. He was a quintessentially cosmopolitan Russian who was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of...
and
BartókBéla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist, considered to be one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, and regarded, along with Liszt, as his country's greatest composer...
. From these influences, he developed his own brand of "English
ImpressionismThe impressionist movement in music was a movement in European classical music, mainly in France, that began in the late nineteenth century and continued into the middle of the twentieth century. Like its precursor in the visual arts, musical Impressionism focused on suggestion and atmosphere...
", related more closely to French and Russian models than to the folk-song style then prevailing in English music.
Like most other Impressionist composers, Ireland favoured small forms and wrote neither symphonies nor operas, although his
Piano ConcertoThe Piano Concerto in E flat was John Ireland’s only concerto. It was composed in 1930, and given its first performance on 2 October of that year by its dedicatee, Helen Perkin , at a Promenade concert in the Queen's Hall...
is among his best works. His output includes some chamber music and a substantial body of piano works, including his best-known piece
The Holy Boy, known in numerous arrangements. His songs to poems by A. E. Housman,
Thomas HardyThomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet of the naturalist movement, although in several poems he displays elements of the previous romantic and enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural. He regarded himself primarily as a poet and composed novels...
,
Christina RossettiChristina Georgina Rossetti was a British poet, who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems...
,
John MasefieldJohn Edward Masefield, OM, was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1930 until his death in 1967...
,
Rupert BrookeRupert Chawner Brooke was an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War ; however, he never experienced combat at first hand...
and others, are a valuable addition to English vocal repertoire, and in the opinion of some are among the best of English art song. Due to his job at St Luke's Church, he also wrote hymns, carols, and other sacred choral music; among choirs he is probably best known for the anthem
Greater love hath no man, often sung in services that commemorate the victims of war. His Communion Service in C is also performed. He appears as pianist in a recording of his Violin Sonata No. 1 (of 1909) with
Frederick GrinkeFrederick Grinke was a Canadian-born violinist who had an international career as soloist, chamber musician and teacher...
, who performed and recorded several of his chamber works.
Ireland also wrote the score for the
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
n film
The OverlandersThe Overlanders is a 1946 Australian film about drovers droving a large herd of cattle 1600 miles overland from Wyndham in Western Australia through the Northern Territory outback of Australia to pastures north of Brisbane, Queensland during World War II....
(his only film score), from which an orchestral suite was extracted posthumously by
Charles MackerrasSir Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras, AC, CH, CBE is an Australian conductor. He is a noted authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan.-Family:...
. Some of his pieces, such as the popular
A Downland Suite and
Themes from Julius Caesar, were completed or re-transcribed after his death by his student
Geoffrey BushGeoffrey Bush was a British composer, organist and scholar of 19th century English music.Geoffrey Bush was born in London, became a chorister at Salisbury Cathedral at the age of 8 and studied informally with the composer John Ireland...
.
Chamber works
- Fantasy Sonata (clarinet & piano)
- Holy Boy (cello & piano)
- Holy Boy (string quartet)
- Phantasie Trio
- Sonata for cello & piano
- Sonata for violin & piano No 1
- Sonata for violin & piano No 2
- Sextet
- String Quartet No. 1 in D minor
- String Quartet No. 2 in C minor
- Trio No 2 (violin, cello & piano)
- Trio No 3 (violin, cello & piano)
Church music
- Benedictus in F
- Communion service in C
- Evening Service in F
- Greater love hath no man (motet)
- The Hills (chorus a capella)
- My Song Is Love Unknown
My Song Is Love Unknown is a hymn by Samuel Crossman, written in 1664.The hymn tune to which it is usually sung is Love Unknown by John Ireland...
(hymn)
- Te Deum in F
- Vexilla Regis (anthem)
- Ex Ore Innocentium (treble voices and organ or piano)
Orchestra
- Comedy Overture
- Concertino Pastorale
- Downland Suite
- Epic March
- Holy Boy (string orch)
- London Overture
- Mai-Dun
- Meditation on John Keble's Rogation Hymn
- Orchestral Poem
- Poem
- Satyricon - Overture
- Symphonic Rhapsody
- Symphonic Studies
- Two Symphonic Studies
Organ
- Alla marcia
- Capriccio
- Elegiac Romance
- Holy Boy
- Meditation on John Keble's Rogation Hymn
- Miniature Suite
- Sursum corda
- Elegy (from Downlands Suite - arr. Alec Rowley)
- Epic March (arr.Robert Gower)
Piano
- Almond Tree
- Aubade
- April
- Ballad of London Nights
- Ballade
- The Boy Bishop
- Columbine
- The Darkened Valley
- Decorations
- Equinox
- February's Child
- Grecian Lad
- Greenways
Greenways is a set of three short atmospheric piano works composed by John Ireland in 1937; entitled The Cherry Tree, Cypress and The Palm and May. They were written when the composer was 57 and are amongst the last sets of piano works he wrote.Greenways sets out to depict in music quotations from...
- In Those Days
- Island Spell
- Leaves from a child's sketchbook
- London Pieces
- Merry Andrew
- Month's Mind
- On a Birthday Morning
- Prelude in E flat
- Preludes (1913-5)
- Puck's Birthday
- Rhapsody
- Sarnia
- Sea Idyll
- Soliloquy
- Sonata in E
- Sonatina
- Spring will not wait
- Summer Evening
- Three Pastels
- The Towing Path
- Two pieces (1921)
- Two Pieces (1924)
Songs
- Bells of San Marie
- During Music
- Friendship in Misfortune
- Hawthorn Time
- The Heart's Desire
- Her Song
- Holy Boy
- Horn the Hornblower
- I have twelve oxen
- If there were dreams to sell
- If we must part
- Land of Lost Content (song cycle)
- Love and Friendship
- Mother & Child (song cycle)
- My true love hath my heart
- Salley Gardens
- Santa Chiara
- Sea Fever
- Song from o'er the hill
- Songs of the Wayfarer (song cycle)
- Songs Sacred and Profane (song cycle)
- Spring sorrow
- Thomas Hardy Songs
- Three Ravens
- The Trellis
- Tryst (in Fountain Court)
- The Vagabond
- What art thou thinking of?
- When I am dead, my dearest
Other (unclassified)
- Bagatelle
- Bed in Summer
- Berceuse
- Brooks Equinox
- Cavatina
- Elegiac Meditation
- The Forgotten Rite
- Scherzo & Cortege
- Tritons
External links