music we sing:
Below you will find details of our concert programmes, and, further down, details of our CD albums, audio recordings and samples of what we sing.
The Queen of the Rushes; the Vocal Harmony of Ireland.
Ireland’s national quartet 4 IN A BAR turns its attention to the music of Ireland in this concert programme of airs, ballads and melodies both old and new.
Beginning with our most famous immigrant – St. Patrick – his life and work is described in an ancient manuscript stored at Trinity College Dublin, set here to music by Eoin Conway. With the famous Dublin song Molly Malone — which turns out to be not as Irish as we think — familiar songs are reimagined, and not all is as it appears.
We turn next to the songs of Thomas Moore (1779‑1852), in arrangements by the Dublin-born Charles Stanford (1852-1924). Both men have had changing reputations over the years. Moore was a superstar in his time, and his lyrics came to define an image of Ireland, but his work fell sharply out of favour after his death. Stanford was widely respected in his own time but his dual Irish/unionist identity affected his reception in both countries.
To celebrate the centenary year of Stanford’s passing, we commissioned Rhona Clarke to compose a lively new work based on instructional writings of Stanford for his composition students, made possible with Arts Council funding.
W.B. Yeats also wrote of complicated loyalties in his poem An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, reflecting the thoughts of one of those many Irishmen who fought for the British army in the First World War. Seán Doherty, a native of Derry, composed for us a thrilling new setting of that poem for the Yeats centenary.
One of the programme’s themes is what if? What if our most ancient music had been written in harmony, like other European early music? It may have turned out a little like the music of Michael McGlynn, who is represented here with his pieces O Pia Virgo and the world-famous Dúlamán. What if the traditional practice of “lilting” an air had come to include not only the tune, but also the accompanying instruments in the band? Then we might have had a uniquely Irish form of a cappella singing, imagined here in a spirited arrangement of the traditional jig Queen of the Rushes.
When the barbershop harmony craze took off in the U.S. at the end of the 19th century, quartets harmonised the popular American songs of the day. Barbershop didn’t arrive on our shores until the 1980s, but what if it made it over here sooner? Which Irish songs and ballads might you have heard outside the windows of the gruagóir (barber) as you strolled down O’Connell street in 1910? We have a couple of suggestions…
SAMPLE PROGRAMME:
Mente Munda (15th century Irish, arranged by Eoin Conway)
Molly Malone (Irish traditional air, arr. E. Conway)
Six Irish Folksongs Op. 78 (C. V. Stanford, 1852-1924)
Words on Rhythm (Rhona Clarke, b. 1958)
*Commissioned by 4 in a Bar, 2024, for the Stanford Centenary. Funding awarded by the Arts Council of Ireland.
The Last Rose of Summer (Thomas Moore. Trad. arr. E. Conway)
Dúlamán (Michael McGlynn, 1964–)
O Pia Virgo (M. McGlynn)
Down by the Salley Gardens (Trad. arr. E. Conway. Text: W. B. Yeats. )
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death (Seán Doherty/ Text: W.B. Yeats) *Commissioned by 4 in a Bar, 2017.
Love’s Old Sweet Song (J. L. Molloy, 1837–1909)
Macushla (Dermot McMurrough, text: Josephine Rowe)
Queen of the Rushes (Trad. arr. E. Conway)
Nocturne no. 5, H37 (John Field, 1782–1837, arr. E. Conway)
Moondance (Van Morrison, arr. Marshall Webb)
Stuck in a Moment (U2/Bono, arr. E. Conway)
The Parting Glass (Trad. arr. E. Conway)
Songs of Love:
EROS. LUDUS. AGAPE. STORGE. PHILIA. PRAGMA. PHILAUTIA
What are these words? What do they mean for us?
Today, the English language uses one powerful word to refer to a variety of emotional feeling: ‘Love’.
But surely this is a little simplistic… ?
The Ancient Greeks debated the different natures of love and devised a range of terms with which to identify them; Romantic love, platonic love, the love between a child and parent, sibling love, love for humankind.
4 IN A BAR presents a program of vocal music exploring these categories of love. With music from ancient to modern times, we plot the development of the love song over the years.
Duration ca. 1 hour.
An Afternoon in Paris:
4 in a Bar explores a millennium of French music. Join us among the ancient stone walls for 14th-century motets by Machaut, and then stroll along the Champs-Élysées with Joe Dassin. Hear Gabriel Fauré at the salon, Francis Poulenc at the Sainte-Chappelle. Man the barricades with Boublil & Schönberg, and finish at Notre Dame cathedral with some reflections from its most famous resident.