Harty - An Irish Symphony

Rec.:Irish RTC national symphony orchestra

    So for St. Patrick's Day I thought I would do a symphony from an Irish composer and in searching I found this one by Hamilton Harty which was plainly called "An Irish Symphony" and it seemed appropriate enough.

    The first movement - On the Shores of Lough Neagh - sets a solid foundation for how the folk elements are going to be used. This definitely isn't a straight forward setting of folk melodies, which is honestly what I was kind of worried about after the number of straightforward Irish music settings I've heard over the years, but rather a full symphonic development of folk themes. If you were to drop a needle in to the middle of this movement, the folk elements may not even be present, as much of the development in between thematic sections sounds more traditionally symphonic. Formally, nothing is super clear, it is almost like a free fantasy on the theme or stylistic variations. The movement is very fluid feeling throughout.


    The Fair-Day - an energetic reel (I think) that says what it needs to and gets out of the way. It comes in at under 3 minutes, but a lot happens in that time, a lot of orchestration shifts through the movements and a very interesting folk gesture in the strings at the opening that signals the form really effectively. The use of xylophone in this movement is nice as well, especially the fun little duet with the piccolo towards the end.

    The third movement - In the Antrim Hills - The opening of this actually reminds me more of Scheherazade than anything. The rest of the movement though is an odd mix of folk ballad and melodramatic Romantic slow movement. Nice use of harp in this movement as well, which I suppose was kind of expected for the slow movement of An Irish Symphony. This movement is kind of an excellent blend of cliches from Folk and Romantic musics that don't sound cliche when combined. The simplicity of the themes are saved by the orchestration and harmonic language.

    The last movement is called The Twelfth Night. This movement almost feels like a reworking of the other movements in to a free form finale. I'd have to go back and check to see if the themes were the one presented in the earlier movements, but all the stylistic ideas presented in the previous movements are reused here. Which for the most part works, but it feels a little less focused that the other movements because of it.

    If your in the mood for something Irish to listen to and still want to feel like a fancy pants, this will do the trick nicely.

Tomorrow: Something Short... got a lot to do.