John Nicholson Ireland (13 August 187912 June 1962) was an English composer and teacher of music. The majority of his output consists of piano miniatures and of songs with piano. His best-known works include the short instrumental or orchestral work "The Holy Boy", a setting of the poem "Sea-Fever" by John Masefield, a formerly much-played Piano Concerto, the hymn tune Love Unknown and the choral motet "Greater Love Hath No Man".
Life
John Nicholson Ireland was born on 13 August 1879 in Bowdon, near Altrincham, Cheshire, into a family of English and Scottish descent and some cultural distinction. His father, Alexander Ireland, a publisher and newspaper proprietor, was aged 69 at John's birth. John was the youngest of the five children from Alexander's second marriage (his first wife had died). His mother, Annie Elizabeth Nicholson Ireland, was a biographer and 30 years younger than Alexander. She died in October 1893, when John was 14, and Alexander died the following year, when John was 15.Stewart R. Craggs, John Ireland. Ashgate Publishing (2007).
Ireland entered the Royal College of Music in 1893, studying piano with Frederic Cliffe, and organ, his second study, under Walter Parratt.Le Prevost, Stephen. "The Organ Music" in Foreman (2011): p. 4 From 1897 he studied composition under Charles Villiers Stanford.Hugh Ottaway. " Ireland, John (Nicholson)", Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, Oxford University Press, retrieved 6 June 2014 In 1896 Ireland was appointed sub-organist at Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, London SW1, and later, from 1904 until 1926, was organist and choirmaster at St Luke's Church, Chelsea.Scott-Sutherland, Colin. "John Ireland: A Life in Music" in Foreman (2011): p. 4
Ireland began to make his name in the early 1900s as a composer of songs and chamber music. His Violin Sonata No. 1 of 1909 won first prize in the Cobbett Competition. Even more successful was his Violin Sonata No. 2: completed in January 1917, he submitted this to a competition organised to assist musicians in wartime. The jury included the violinist Albert Sammons and the pianist William Murdoch, who together gave the work its first performance at Aeolian Hall in New Bond Street on 6 March that year. As Ireland recalled, "It was probably the first and only occasion when a British composer was lifted from relative obscurity in a single night by a work cast in a chamber-music medium." The work was enthusiastically reviewed, and the publisher Winthrop Rogers offered immediate publication (the first edition was sold out even before it had been processed by the printers). A subsequent performance of the Violin Sonata by Ireland and the violinist Désiré Defauw drew a packed audience to the Wigmore Hall in London.Phillips, Bruce. "John Ireland's Chamber Music" in Foreman (2011): p. 227
Ireland frequently visited the Channel Islands and was inspired by the landscape and the ambience. In 1912 he composed the piano piece The Island Spell (the first of the three pieces in his set Decorations) while staying in Jersey, and his set of three pieces for piano Sarnia: An Island Sequence was written while living in Guernsey in 1939 to 1940. He returned from Guernsey to Britain in 1940 just before the German invasion of the Channel Islands during World War II.
From 1923 he taught at the Royal College of Music.Scott-Sutherland, Colin. "John Ireland: A Life in Music" in Foreman (2011): p. 5 His pupils there included Richard Arnell, Ernest John Moeran, Benjamin Britten (who later described Ireland as possessing "a strong personality but a weak character"),Paul Kildea, Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century, p. 63 the composer Alan Bush, Geoffrey Bush (no relation to Alan), who subsequently edited or arranged many of Ireland's works for publication, Anthony Bernard and Percy Turnbull (who became a lifelong friend).
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 old pupil, Dorothy Phillips. This marriage was dissolved on 18 September 1928, and it is believed not to have been consummated.. Hyperion-records.com. Retrieved 27 August 2011. He took a similar interest in another young student, Helen Perkin, a pianist and composer, to whom he dedicated both the Piano Concerto in E-flat major 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 Adie, a disciple of George Gurdjieff, and she later moved with Adie to Australia.Richards, Fiona. 'Helen Perkin: Pianist, Composer and Muse of John Ireland' (Chapter 11 of Foreman, Lewis (ed.), The John Ireland Companion (2011) Subsequently, Ireland withdrew the dedications. In 1947 Ireland acquired a personal assistant and companion, a woman named Norah Kirkby, who remained with him until his death. Despite these associations with women, it is clear from his private papers that he was a closeted homosexual; several commentators support this view.George E. Haggerty (2000) "Ireland, John", Gay Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, p, 477, Garland Publishing Inc., New York Hyperion, The Songs of John Ireland. Hyperion-records.co.uk. Retrieved 27 August 2011.
On 10 September 1949, his 70th birthday was celebrated in a special Prom concert, at which his Piano Concerto was played by Eileen Joyce,Alan Bush Music Trust: The Correspondence of Alan Bush and John Ireland. Alanbushtrust.org.uk. Retrieved 27 August 2011. who was also the first pianist to record the concerto, in 1942.
Ireland retired in 1953, settling in the hamlet of Rock in Sussex, where he lived in a converted windmill, Rock Mill, Washington, for the rest of his life. It was there he met the young pianist Alan Rowlands, who would be Ireland's choice to record his complete piano music.
Ireland died of heart failure on 12 June 1962 at Rock Mill. He was 82. He is buried at St Mary's Church in Shipley, near his home. His epitaph reads "Many waters cannot quench love" and "One of God's noblest works lies here."
Music
From Charles Villiers Stanford, Ireland inherited a thorough knowledge of the music of Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms and other German classical composers, but as a young man he was also strongly influenced by Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel as well as by the earlier works of Igor Stravinsky and Béla Bartók. From these influences, he developed his own brand of "English Impressionism", 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 Concerto is considered among the best composed by an Englishman. 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. He wrote songs to poems by A. E. Housman, Thomas Hardy, Christina Rossetti, John Masefield, Rupert Brooke and others. 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. The hymn tune Love Unknown is sung in churches throughout the English-speaking world, as is his Communion Service in C major.John Ireland, "Greater Love Hath No Man," YouTubeIreland – Greater Love Hath No Man – The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge – Stephen Layton – YouTubeParfitt, Peter. "John Ireland: Greater Love." Aberdeen Bach Choir. 2011
His works have been recorded and performed by the choir of Westminster Abbey, the choir of Wells Cathedral and many others.
He appears as pianist in a recording of his Fantasy-Sonata for Clarinet and Piano with Frederick Thurston,CD: Symposium 1259, "probably recorded in 1948", http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Name/John-Ireland/Performer/5769-2 . his Cello Sonata (1923) with cellist Antoni Sala and his Violin Sonata No. 1 (1909) with Frederick Grinke,ASIN: B00002MXU8 who performed and recorded several of his chamber works. His Piano Sonatina (192627) and a number from his cycle Songs Sacred and Profane (1929) were dedicated to his friend the conductor and BBC music producer Edward Clark.Lewis Foreman, The John Ireland CompanionIMSLPStewart R Craggs, John Ireland: A Catalogue, Discography and Bibliography
Ireland wrote his only film score for the 1946 Australian film The Overlanders, from which an orchestral suite was extracted posthumously by Charles Mackerras. 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 Bush.
Works
Chamber works
A to R Bagatelle for violin and piano (1911) Berceuse for violin and piano (1902) Fantasy-Sonata in E-flat major for clarinet and piano (1943) Cavatina for violin and piano (1904) The Holy Boy: A Carol of the Nativity for cello and piano (arr. 1919) The Holy Boy: A Carol of the Nativity for violin and piano (arr. 1919) The Holy Boy: A Carol of the Nativity for string quartet (arr. 1941) Phantasie, Trio No. 1 in A minor for violin, cello and piano (1906)
S to Z Sextet for clarinet, horn and string quartet (1898) Sonata in G minor for cello and piano (1923) Sonata No. 1 in D minor for violin and piano Sonata No. 2 in A minor for violin and piano (1915–1917) String Quartet No. 1 in D minor (1897) String Quartet No. 2 in C minor (1897) Trio No. 2 in One Movement for violin, cello and piano (1917) Trio No. 3 in E for violin, cello and piano (1938) Trio in D minor for clarinet, cello and piano (1912–1914)
Church music
A to G Adam Lay Ybounden in F minor Benedictus in F Communion Service in A flat (Treble voices and organ) Communion service in C Evening Service in A (SATB and organ) Evening Service in C (SATB and organ) Evening Service in F Ex Ore Innocentium (treble voices and organ or piano) Greater Love Hath No Man (motet)
H to Z The Hills (chorus a capella) Jubilate Deo in F major Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in C major Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in F major "My Song Is Love Unknown" (hymn) Te Deum in F major Vexilla Regis (anthem)
Film score The Overlanders (1946)
Orchestra
A to L Comedy Overture (1934) Concertino Pastorale (string orchestra) (1939) A Downland Suite (1932) Epic March (1942) The Forgotten Rite (1913, published 1918) The Holy Boy (string orchestra, arr. 1941) London Overture (1936)
M to Z Mai-Dun, A Symphonic Rhapsody (1921) Meditation on John Keble's Rogation Hymn (1958) Orchestral Poem Poem Satyricon – Overture (1946) Symphonic Studies Tritons (1899) Two Symphonic Studies
Organ
A to G Alla marcia Capriccio Cavatina (arr. of Cavatina for violin and piano, 1904) Elegiac Romance Elegy (from A Downland Suite – arr. Alec Rowley) Epic March (arr. Robert Gower)
H to Z The Holy Boy (1913, arr. 1919 by Alec Rowley) Marcia Popolare Meditation on John Keble's Rogation Hymn Miniature Suite Sursum Corda
Piano
A to L The Almond Tree (1913) Ballad (1929) Ballade of London Nights (1930) Columbine (1949) The Darkened Valley (1920) Decorations (191213) The Island Spell Moonglade The Scarlet Ceremonies Equinox (1922) First Rhapsody (1906) Green Ways – Three Lyric Pieces (1937) The Cherry Tree Cypress The Palm and May In Those Days (1895) Daydream Meridian Indian Summer (1932) Leaves from a Child's Sketchbook (1918) By the Mere In the Meadow The Hunt's Up London Pieces (191720) Chelsea Reach Ragamuffin Soho Forenoons
M to S Mai-Dun, A Symphonic Rhapsody, arranged for piano four hands (1931) Merry Andrew (1919) Month's Mind (1935) On a Birthday Morning (1922) Prelude in E-flat major (1924)