Composer – Eimear Quinn, Lyrics – Eimear Quinn, Publisher: © Peermusic

This piece was created to herald the beginning of the live concert of ‘Breath Upon the Flame’, with a classic march rhythm and canonic structure between voice and brass. The voice moves through the audience, seated in the cathedral, as the instruments on stage echo back the melody in turn. The text is a devotional greeting to Mary, and the melody is inspired by the folk tradition, therefore integrating all the elements of tradition, voice, brass, and the sacred space. 

Eimear Quinn, 2023

Arranger – Eimear Quinn, © Peermusic

This song has been a favourite in my repertoire for many years, and comes from the shared folk traditions of Britain and Ireland. Thought to be of Scottish origin, the song became part of the Appalachian music tradition during the 1920s and is therefore well loved within the pan-celtic folk music repertoire. The tenderness of the text is really suited to the plaintive and lonesome tone so easily evoked by french horn. The urgency of emotion in the developing song is echoed in the harp and strings, with all instruments joining for the climax. 

This arrangement is dedicated to my husband, Noel Curran, who does indeed have black hair.

Eimear Quinn, 2023

Arranger – John Buckley, Publisher: John Buckley

This is the first of three arrangements by composer/arranger John Buckley.

“…I have long admired the beautiful singing of Eimear Quinn. Her voice is marked by a purity and absolute clarity of sound, combined with a profound and highly imaginative sense of interpretation. I kept Eimear’s voice constantly in mind while doing the arrangements. The ensemble of brass quintet (2 trumpets, horn, trombone and tuba) adds a wonderful richness of sonority, while the harp, violin and viola weave their own elaborate strands into the musical texture.

‘She Moved Through the Fair’ is another beguiling melody collected and arranged by Herbert Hughes and published in the first volume of his Irish Country Songs. The words were written by Padraic Colum (1881-1972), who was a poet, novelist, and playwright and a leading figure of the Celtic literary revival.

The melody too has a great simplicity with a reflective, meditative and inward quality.

This arrangement sets three verses of the song. The extensive introduction, links and coda are impressionistic in style and suggestive of the French school, in particular Maurice Ravel. The mellow sound of the flugel horn replaces the first trumpet in the arrangement helping to capture the feeling of the melody and the words. The arrangement is dedicated to Eimear Quinn…”

John Buckley, 2023

Composer - Siúbhán Ní Ghríofa, Lyrics by Brendan Graham © Peermusic (UK) Ltd

In 1996, two years before the 1998, Good Friday Agreement, Eimear Quinn, as ‘the voice’ of Ireland sang ‘bring me your peace and my wounds they will heal.’

2023, being the 25^th Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, this song attempts to ‘close the circle’ with that theme of The Voice.

Now, with Gavan Ring they sing ‘There is peace upon this land’. While the song has a personal intimacy ..’when you take my hand’, I was also referencing the bigger picture of people taking each other’s hands, coming together in peace.

All is built upon Siúbhán Ní Ghríofa’s soaring melody, with which she so generously allowed me to work.

Brendan Graham, 2023

I wrote this melody as part of a piece for Wills’ solo trumpet album. This tune was the third and final tune in the piece I called ‘Ár Scéal’. It depicts ‘our story’, how we met, and moved here to Ireland to start our family. Brendan’s lyrics marry so seamlessly with the melody. It was always a song in my head and with Brendan’s beautiful apt  words ‘Peace Upon this Land’ was born.

Siúbhán Ní Ghríofa, 2023

Arranger – John Buckley, Publisher: John Buckley

“..Down by the Salley Gardens is a poem by William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), published in his first book The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems (1889).

The arrangement is a free-flowing fantasia on the tune. The melody is played at first on the brass and strings with harp accompaniment by way of introduction before the entry of the voice. Amongst the features of the arrangement are the addition of countermelodies in the strings and a short but elaborate cadenza for the harp which leads back to the concluding verse of the song. The arrangement is dedicated to Eimear Quinn…”

John Buckley, 2023

Composer - Siúbhán Ní Ghríofa, Arranger – Gavin Murphy, Publisher: © Peer Music  

This was inspired by my ‘buachaill álainn’ Fíann. It came to me when I was driving, trying to get him to nap. I had to pull over and very quietly sing the tune into my phone lest I forget it (or wake him up!). Gavin Murphy has arranged this so beautifully showcasing the whole ensemble.

For Fíann.

Siúbhán Ní Ghríofa, 2023

Arranger – John Buckley, Publisher: John Buckley

The lyrics of My Lagan Love are by the Irish poet Joseph Campbell (1879–1944), who collaborated with the folk-song collector and arranger Herbert Hughes.

The hauntingly evocative melody and words have a muted, wistful and introspective character, which I have tried to capture in the arrangement. The tune is in mixolydian mode, commonly found in Irish traditional slow airs. The three verses of the melody appear in different arrangements with elaborate introduction, linking, and closing sections.

It is dedicated to Siúbhan Ní Ghríofa.

John Buckley, 2023