IRISH MUSIC AND HOME-RULE POLITICS, 1800-1922 By AARON C. KEEBAUGH A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2011 1 © 2011 Aaron C. Keebaugh 2 ―I received a letter from the American Quarter Horse Association saying that I was the only member on their list who actually doesn‘t own a horse.‖—Jim Logg to Ernest the Sincere from Love Never Dies in Punxsutawney To James E. Schoenfelder 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A project such as this one could easily go on forever. That said, I wish to thank many people for their assistance and support during the four years it took to complete this dissertation. First, I thank the members of my committee—Dr. Larry Crook, Dr. Paul Richards, Dr. Joyce Davis, and Dr. Jessica Harland-Jacobs—for their comments and pointers on the written draft of this work. I especially thank my committee chair, Dr. David Z. Kushner, for his guidance and friendship during my graduate studies at the University of Florida the past decade. I have learned much from the fine example he embodies as a scholar and teacher for his students in the musicology program. I also thank the University of Florida Center for European Studies and Office of Research, both of which provided funding for my travel to London to conduct research at the British Library. I owe gratitude to the staff at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. for their assistance in locating some of the materials in the Victor Herbert Collection. Raymond White was kind enough to allow me access to his then- unpublished catalogue of the items in that collection. Several of my Irish colleagues deserve thanks for their comments on my work on Shamus O'Brien, which I presented at the First International Conference on Irish Music and Musicians at Durham University in July 2010. Their suggestions were useful for the work that went into the later chapters of this study. Maestro Evans Haile deserves special thanks for lending me his complete score to Victor Herbert's Eileen. I am grateful to Bill Dean, who, during my work as a music writer for The Gainesville Sun, provided advice on my writing and opened my mind to the wider world of music journalism. I am a better writer due to his guidance. Dr. John Duff also deserves thanks for his valuable musicianship and instruction on the highland bagpipes. 4 Our numerous trips to band practice and to contests around the South provided a welcome and educational diversion from this project. I thank my friends and family for their support during my years at the University of Florida. My wife Cari especially provided wisdom, a fresh pair of eyes, and loving encouragement over the past several years. Finally, I thank my dear friend Jim Schoenfelder for his support and tremendous wit. My interest in Irish politics, though I didn‘t realize it at the time, stemmed from our talks together while goofing off in the faculty lounge at Bishop Guilfoyle High School over ten years ago. This project is dedicated to him and our outstanding friendship. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... 7 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTERS 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 10 Overview of the Subject .......................................................................................... 10 Need For the Study ................................................................................................. 11 Review of the Literature .......................................................................................... 14 2 THOSE WILD AND BEAUTIFUL STRAINS: IRISH FOLKSONG COLLECTIONS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY .......................................................................... 34 Edward Bunting ...................................................................................................... 35 George Thomson‘s Collection ................................................................................. 49 Thomas Moore ........................................................................................................ 57 Bunting‘s 1809 Collection ....................................................................................... 78 Bunting‘s 1840 Collection ....................................................................................... 87 George Petrie‘s Collection ...................................................................................... 94 3 CHARLES VILLIERS STANFORD AND IRISH MUSIC IN THE 1880s................. 110 Charles Villiers Stanford‘s Folksong Settings ....................................................... 110 Stanford‘s Irish Symphony .................................................................................... 121 4 THE HOME-RULE ISSUE AND MUSIC AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY ...... 139 Politics and Nostalgia in Victor Herbert‘s Irish Rhapsody ..................................... 139 Stanford‘s Shamus O’Brien ................................................................................... 154 5 CHARLES VILLIERS STANFORD, VICTOR HERBERT, AND THE IRISH QUESTION ........................................................................................................... 172 Charles Stanford and Unionism ............................................................................ 172 Victor Herbert‘s Irish nationalism .......................................................................... 192 6 EPILOGUE ........................................................................................................... 229 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................... 240 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 251 6 LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 2-1 ―Let Erin Remember the Days of Old‖. ............................................................... 76 2-2 Petrie's The Old Wind Mill at Rathgar Quarry, Dublin ......................................... 98 2-3 Petrie‘s harmonic choices in ―Molly Newson‖ ................................................... 104 2-4 Petrie‘s use of Alberti-bass in ―Blackwater Foot‖. ............................................. 105 2-5 ―Name unknown‖. ............................................................................................. 106 3-1 ―Emer‘s Farewell to Cucullain‖. ......................................................................... 116 3-2 ―Father O‘Flynn‖. .............................................................................................. 118 3-3 Stanford‘s first use of ―The Lament for the Sons of Usnach‖ in the third movement of the Irish Symphony. .................................................................... 127 3-4 Petrie‘s ―The Lamentation of Deirdre for the Sons of Usnach‖. ........................ 128 3-5 Bunting‘s ―The Lamentation of Deirdre for the Sons of Usnach‖....................... 128 3-6 ―The Irish Cry‖. .................................................................................................. 129 3-7 ―Let Erin Remember the Days of Old‖ in the Finale of Stanford‘s Irish Symphony......................................................................................................... 133 5-1 Benjamin West's The Death of General Wolfe ................................................. 175 5-2 Stanford-Petrie "The Death of General Wolfe‖ ................................................. 177 5-3 Stanford-Graves "The Death of General Wolfe‖. .............................................. 177 5-4 "Like a Ghost I am Gone‖. ................................................................................ 180 5-5 Title page with Moore inscription in Charles Villiers Stanford, Irish Rhapsody No. 4, Op. 141. ................................................................................................. 187 5-6 Final page of score with quotation from Tennyson‘s The Princess on the bottom in.Charles Villiers Stanford, Irish Rhapsody No. 4, Op. 141 ................. 188 5-7 Herbert‘s and Caesar‘s Mary Came Over to Me. .............................................. 226 7 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy IRISH MUSIC AND HOME-RULE POLITICS, 1800-1922 By Aaron C. Keebaugh December 2011 Chair: David Z. Kushner Major: Music For much of the nineteenth-century, the Irish question of self government played a central role in British politics. Indeed, the Catholic Emancipation movement of the early part of century, the Potato famine of the late 1840s, and the Home-Rule bills between 1880 and 1914, blocked the legislative process entirely. As a result, the Irish issue spread into public life throughout Britain, the United States, and other corners of the English speaking world. This study explores the role that Home-Rule politics played in select Irish folksong collections and Irish-themed art music between 1800 and 1922. Two figures especially loom large in the study: Charles Villiers Stanford and Victor Herbert. Both were born in Ireland,