The Boys Of Fairhill - John C. Murphy

A Wexford Rhapsody

William Byrd Suite

Handel in the Strand
Composer: Percy Grainger
Conducted by: Fergal Carroll

Handel in the Strand is one of Grainger’s early light orchestral pieces, written in 1911, before he enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War I. Grainger had no trouble allowing other musicians to arrange his music to suit their needs, so Handel in the Strand has existed in several different versions. After its original massed piano and string orchestra setting came versions for full orchestra, piano (solo and 4 hands), organ, trombone choir, and two different settings for band. The title was originally Clog Dance, but a friend, William Gair Rathbone suggested the title Handel in the Strand, because the music seemed to reflect both Handel and the English musical comedy (“The Strand” - a street in London - is the home of London musical comedy) - as if jovial old Handel were careering down the Strand to the strains of modern English
popular music.

Handel in the Strand

Colonial Song
Composer:  Percy Grainger
Conducted by: Fergal Carroll

Grainger initially wrote Colonial Song in 1911 as a piano piece as a gift to his mother, Rose. Of his piece, Grainger wrote that it was "an attempt to write a melody as typical of the Australian countryside as Stephen Foster's exquisite songs are typical of rural America". Although the piece seems to have been intended as part of a series of “sentimentals”, Grainger
never wrote any other pieces in this series. Unlike many of Grainger's other compositions, the melodies of Colonial Song are not based on folk song, but are original melodies.

Colonial Song

Shepherd's Hey
Composer: Percy Grainger
Conducted by: Fergal Carroll

Shepherd's Hey was scored for wind band in 1918. The word “Hey” denotes a particular figure in Morris Dancing. Morris Dances are still danced by teams of “Morris Men” decked out with bells and quaint ornaments to the music of the fiddle or the pipe and tabor (a sort of drum and fife) in several agricultural districts in England. The “hey” involves the interweaving of generally two lines of dancers, which may be symbolized by Grainger's use of two parallel lines of music
at the opening of the composition, rather than a simple statement of a theme that then moves into variants.

Shepherds Hey

Concerto for Soprano Saxophone
Composer: Michael Torke
Soloist: Ken Marshall
Conductor: Robert O'Brien



William Byrd Suite

Cork Philharmonic Winds

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