Ina Boyle

Ina Boyle

Ina Boyle (8 March 1889 – 10 March 1967) was an Irish composer – the most prolific and significant female composer from Ireland before 1950.[1]

Biography

She was born in Bushey Park near Enniskerry and took violin and cello lessons as a child. She studied counterpoint, harmony and composition with Charles Herbert Kitson and George Hewson in Dublin, and by correspondence with her cousin Charles Wood. She also traveled to London periodically for lessons with Ralph Vaughan Williams.[2] She also studied with Percy Buck.[3]

Because of her isolation, Boyle's music was seldom performed. However, she continued to compose until her death.[4] Her composition The Magic Harp received a Carnegie Award, and she won an Olympic Honorable Mention in 1948 for Ireland with Lament for Bion, a composition she submitted to the Olympic Cultural Activities Committee.[5] She died of cancer in Greystones, County Wicklow,[6] and her papers are archived in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin.[7] Trinity College has digitised most of her music manuscripts, and they can be searched and studied online.

A feature-length documentary about the life and music of Ina Boyle titled From the Darkness was broadcast 12 June 2010 on Ireland's RTÉ Lyric FM. In April and May 2013, an exhibition at Trinity College highlighted "Ina Boyle’s Symphonic Journey".

Selected works

Opera

  • Maudlin of Paplewick (after 'The Sad Shepherd' by Ben Jonson), pastoral opera (1966)

Choral music

  • The Transfiguration (biblical) for tenor, mixed chorus and organ (1922); London: Novello, 1922
  • Gaelic Hymns (from Carmina gadelica, transl. by Alexander Carmichael) (1924); excerpts published London: J. & W. Chester, 1930
  • Christ is a Path (Giles and Phineas Fletcher), chamber cantata (1925)
  • A Spanish Pastoral (St. Teresa, transl. by Arthur Symons) for soprano and male choir (1931); London: Stainer & Bell, 1935

Orchestra

  • Elegy (1913) for cello and orchestra
  • The Magic Harp, orchestral rhapsody (1919); London: Stainer & Bell, 1922
  • Colin Clout, pastoral for orchestra (1921)
  • Symphony No. 1: Glencree (1927)
  • Phantasy for violin and chamber orchestra (1926)
  • Psalm for cello and orchestra (1927)
  • Symphony No. 2: The Dream of the Rood (1930)
  • Overture (1934)
  • Violin Concerto (1935)
  • Wild Geese, sketch for small orchestra (1942)

Voices with orchestra

  • Soldiers at Peace (Herbert Asquith) for chorus and orchestra (1916); London: Novello, 1917
  • Still Falls the Rain (Edith Sitwell) for alto and string orchestra (1948)
  • Symphony No. 3: From the Darkness (Edith Sitwell) for contralto and orchestra (1951)
  • No Coward Soul is Mine (Emily Brontë) for alto and string orchestra (1953)

Songs (for voice and piano, if not otherwise mentioned)

  • The Joy of Earth (Æ = George Russell) (1914)
  • Have You News of My Boy Jack? (Rudyard Kipling) (1916)
  • A Song of Shadows, a Song of Enchantment (Walter de la Mare) (1922); London: Stainer & Bell, 1923, 1926
  • If You Let Sorrow in on You (Winifred M. Letts) (1922)
  • Sleep Song (anon., transl. by Pádraic Pearse) (1923)
  • A Mountain Woman (1927)
  • Five Sacred Folksongs of Sicily (Grace Warrack) (1930)
  • Thinke then my Soul (John Donne) for tenor and string quartet (1938); Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1939
  • Three Songs by Ben Jonson for medium voice, violin, cello (1955)
  • Three Ancient Irish Poems (transl. by Kuno Meyer) for soprano, viola, harp (1958)
  • Songs from Peacock Pie (Walter de la Mare): Song of the Mad Prince, The Pigs and the Charcoal-Burner, Moon, Reeds, Rushes, Looking Back (1956)

Ballet scores

  • Virgilian Suite (1931), ballet suite for small orchestra
  • The Dance of Death (1936), a masque for dancing
  • The Vision of Er (1939), a mimed drama or ballet

Chamber music

  • String Quartet in E minor (1934)

Recordings

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ Sadie, Julie Anne; Samuel, Rhian (1994). The Norton/Grove dictionary of women composers (Digitized online by GoogleBooks).
  2. ↑ Williams, Ralph Vaughan; Cobbe, Hugh (2008). Letters of Ralph Vaughan Williams 1895-1958.
  3. ↑ Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland: Composers
  4. ↑ Fuller, Sophie (1994). The Pandora Guide to Women Composers: Britain and the United States.
  5. ↑ "COMPÉTITIONS D'ART" (PDF). Retrieved 1 February 2011.
  6. ↑ Ita Beausang: "Boyle, Ina", in: The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland, ed. by Harry White and Barra Boydell (Dublin: UCD Press, 2013), p. 119–121.
  7. ↑ "INA BOYLE (1889-1967)". Retrieved 1 February 2011.

External links

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