Music Box
March 19, 2023
Jubal Joslyn, tenor
Cathryn Wilkinson, organ
Prelude
Londonderry Air……arr. Marianne Kim
The Faire Hills of Eire, Oh……Amy Beach
Prelude on “Slane”……Irish tune, arr. Franklin Ashdown
Offertory
Prelude on the Irish tune “St. Columba”……arr. Charles V. Stanford
Postlude
Spring Song……Harry Rowe Shelley
Top o’ the morning to you! The great tradition of Christianity in Ireland was nurtured in the 4th century by St. Patrick. He was ordained as a priest in Gaul and later consecrated as the second bishop of Ireland. It was specified that his hymn, “St. Patrick’s Breastplate,” would be sung in all monasteries and churches throughout all of Ireland.
“Christ beside me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, King of my heart;
Christ within me, Christ below me,
Christ above me never to part.”
Irish church music also includes hymn texts set to traditional folk melodies. SLANE is named for the hill where Patrick defied the king by lighting a candle on Easter. This tune was published in 1909 in Old Irish Folk Music and Songs. ST COLUMBA, commemorating the missionary to the island of Iona in Scotland, was first recorded in Ancient Music of Ireland from the Petrie Collection in 1877.
