JAVS Fall 2020

Rebecca Clarke’s Irish Melody was first performed in 1918 with Clarke playing viola and her frequent collaborating partner May Mukle performing on cello. The duo used Irish Melody as a companion performance piece to Clarke’s better-known work for viola and cello, Lullaby and Grotesque. In her diaries, Clarke noted that she completed a modified arrangement of Irish Melody for violin and cello in 1927, to be performed by Constance and Margaret Izard at Aeolian Hall in London. While Irish Melody ’s well-known melody is easily recognizable to most audience members, the setting of this much-loved Irish folk song features characteristics distinct to the compositional style of Rebecca Clarke. Her fascination with open harmonies laden with parallel fourths and thick luscious doublestops in both parts indicate a clear link to the soundscape Clarke developed in her Lullaby , composed in the same year. While this work was originally composed for a concert series that fundraised for the American Red Cross during World War I, Martinson and Johnson’s edition of Irish Melody arrives at a time in which performers can console audiences remotely, evoke nostalgia, and mitigate a yearning to connect with loved ones in-person again. The Tertis-Masters rendition of Percy Grainger’s Molly on the Shore is a new music summer pick for its lightheartedness, while Clarke’s Irish Melody (edited by Martinson and Johnson) allows for a cathartic outlet sorely needed in these challenging times. Dr. Gregory K. Williams is on the viola and chamber music faculty at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY), and has cultivated a private viola studio in the New York metropolitan area. He is a Co-Assistant Director and Viola Faculty member of Mountain Springs Music Festival in Draper, Utah. He also performs as Assistant Principal Violist of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Principal Violist of the Berkshire Opera Festival, and Violist of the Golden Williams Duo.

Irish Melody (Emer’s Farewell to Cucullain): “Londonderry Air” Rebecca Clarke, prepared and edited by Kenneth

Martinson and Christopher Johnson Gems Music Publications, GPL 262

Keeping consistent with fresh arrangements of celebrated Irish melodies (coincidentally themed), another publication worth examining is Irish Melody (Emer’s Farewell to Cucullain): “Londonderry Air , ” which was adapted in 1918 by Rebecca Clarke for viola and cello duo. Clarke’s setting of Irish Melody is based upon texts written by the Irish poet and songwriter Alfred Perceval Graves (1846–1931) that were set to the melody of Londonderry Air in Charles Villiers Stanford’s Songs of Old Ireland. In the preface of this edition, Christopher Johnson indicates that Clarke incorporated plagal cadences at the ends of phrases as a direct homage to Stanford’s edition. Gems Publications produced the first published edition, based on Clarke’s manuscripts, which were part of a private collection held by Royal Academy of Music viola professor John White until 2015; the manuscripts have since become part of the Royal Academy’s Rare Manuscript collection, along with the manuscripts of Clarke’s Lullaby and Grotesque.

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Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 36, No. 2, Fall 2020