On Thursday evening at the Canadian Music Centre soprano Maeve Palmer and pianist Jialiang Zhu gave a recital that explored Irish song in many of its aspects from traditional sean-nós to English language art songs for voice and piano and points in between.  I don’t know if there is another country where traditional music and composed contemporary music co-exist in quite the same way, and produce such interesting fusions, so it was really interesting.

Maeve started with the traditional Siúil a Rúin.  This is (perhaps surprisingly) sung in a mixture of English and Irish but in sean-nós style which is something that happened with Irish song in the 19th century.  It’s a beautiful love song and it was sung very stylishly.  The next set was also typical of time and place.  It was a selection of four of Herbert Hughes’ arrangements of Irish songs (in English) for voice and piano made in the early 20th century.  Here we are definitely in Western art song territory sort of like the Britten folk song arrangements. Idiomatic treatment (though different idiom!) from singer and pianist.

Then we got a really odd hybrid; two songs by Fuhong Shi in which the texts are Chinese classical poetry translated into Irish.  To my ear they don’t sound particularly Chinese or particularly Irish but rather like contemporary composed song which is not a big surprise given the composer’s background.  An interesting piece of fusion though.  The first half of the programme finished up with another piece in traditional style; Amhrán Mhainse.  This is a song in which a woman; Máire Ní Chlochartaigh, anticipates her death.  It’s a traditional Irish trope with echoes, of course, in Yeats. 

And speaking of William Butler Yeats the second half of the programme began with three settings of his poems by Donnacha Dennehy.  These are arrangements for voice and piano of parts of his 2010 work  That the Night Come; originally scored for voice and chamber orchestra. These are vry much contemporary art song; quite varied and technical with some challenging vocal passages and complex piano part. These were very skilled performances.  And from song composed in the modern manner to modern song in the traditional manner to finish.  Patrick Cassidy’s Mise Éire, is a setting of a 1912 poem by Patrick Pearse and was written to commemorate the centenary of the Easter Rising.  Indeed, it was sung at the official ceremonies pertaining to that anniversary.  It’s quite beautiful but not exactly a happy song.

So, a really varied and interesting exploration of what Irish song can be and mean that went well beyond the usual clichés.