Decorations (John Ireland)

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Decorations (John Ireland) - Wikipedia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Decorations is a set of three pieces for piano solo composed in 1912–13 by John Ireland.^[1]

A performance of all three pieces takes about 9½ minutes. Their titles are:^[2]^[3]

The Island Spell
Moonglade
The Scarlet Ceremonies

The set was reviewed by the Monthly Musical Record in August 1915, as follows:

"These three pieces are well named, since they are the most successful pieces of pictorial writing we have encountered since the advent of Maurice Ravel, whose style they somewhat resemble as regards technique. Magic seas and fairy woods are evoked by the subtlest art in the first piece, “The Island Spell”. Is it by accident that one conjures up the magic music of Shakespeare's Tempest? An all-pervading mood is here, as with the best types of decorative music. There is a curious compelling charm and feeling of remoteness about the “Moon-Glade”, also written over a poem of Arthur Symons commencing “Why are you so sorrowful in dreams?” This piece is pure impressionism. The fading tonality at the close, so like the stuff dreams are made of, is a wonderful piece of tone-artistry. The third movement entitled “The Scarlet Ceremonies” is the most striking of the set. It is founded on a quotation from Arthur Machen’s “The House of Souls”. Against a continuously palpitating pattern in the right hand a trumpet-like theme is given out by the left. The whole movement is evolved from the first twelve bars or so. The theme passes to the right hand later on, appearing over a fluttering figure of fourths in the bass. There is an original “pedal-point” effect at the end, and a new double glissando of white and black notes which will be responsible for many grazed fingers. Originality breathes in every bar of the Decorations, and the composer evidently possesses peculiar magic powers in the world of sound."^[4]^{[better source needed]}

References

^ "List of works – C to D". The John Ireland Trust. Archived from the original on 24 May 2015. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
^ John Ireland: Decorations, pieces (3) for piano at AllMusic. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
^ Decorations (Ireland, John): Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
^ "Decorations: a review". john ireland: music, people, places. 3 January 2014.

John Ireland

Piano

Piano Concerto (1930)

Solo

First Rhapsody (1905?/1906?)
Decorations (1913)
The Holy Boy (1913)
The Almond Tree (1913)
Preludes for Piano (1913–1915)
Rhapsody (1915)
London Pieces (1917–1920)
The Towing Path
Leaves from a Child's Sketchbook (1918)
The Darkened Valley (1920)
Two Pieces for Piano (1921)
Prelude in E-flat major (1924)
Two Pieces for Piano (1925)
Sonatina (1926–1927)
Ballad (1929)
Two Pieces for Piano (1929–1930)
Ballade of London Nights (1930)
Month's Mind (1935)
Green Ways (1937)
Sarnia: An Island Sequence (1940–1941)
Three Pastels (1941)

Vocal and choral

"Love Unknown" (1925)

Song cycles	Songs of a Wayfarer (1911) Two Songs (1916) Two Songs (1918) Mother and Child (1918) Three Songs to Poems by Arthur Symons (1919) Two Songs (1920) The Land of Lost Content (1921) Three Songs to Poems by Thomas Hardy (1925) Three Songs (1926) Two Songs (1928) We'll to the Woods No More (1928) Songs Sacred and Profane (1931) Five Sixteenth-Century Poems (1938)