Thomas Moore, IRELAND’S MINSTREL (1779-1852)

1) Moore o More?2) posizione controversa in canoncanon/reception history reception history della letteratura (in) inglese 3) non esiste edizione (integrale e/o critica) dei Complete Works di TM4.1) figlio dei Roman Catholics John Moore e Anastasia Codd Moore con studi

universitari presso il Trinity College di Dublino e moglie protestante4.2) ruolo della sua matrice confessionale nei suoi studi, nel suo impegno socio-

politico e nella sua attività (musico-)letteraria e, più in generale, culturale5) trasformò l’Irlanda in una risorsa economica e, in seguito, andò egli stesso

incontro alla medesima trasformazione

Obiettivi in termini di cultural and textual politics: ad es.Obiettivi in termini di cultural and textual politics: ad es.→ ricomposizione di materiali culturali autoctoni allo scopo di creare una culturairlandese di lingua inglese – cultura, questa, in grado di includere sia nuovemodalità esecutive in ambito musicale, sia un’innovativa produzione editorialenegli ambiti letterari della poesia e della prosa→ rimodellare la storia e la cultura d’Irlanda in nuove forme letterarie, soprattuttoquelle che prevedono la musica [music] in generale e il rapporto tra musica eparola [song] in particolare

Irish Melodies (London, 1807/8-1834)

“collection of political songs to Irish Airs”collection of political songs to Irish Airs” (lettera a Mr Powers, March 23 1813) (lettera a Mr Powers, March 23 1813)

• “a conventional understanding of music in relation to literature” per Irlanda, Europa e oltre: “Moore’s auditory imaginationauditory imagination [-] the expressly musical dimension of [his] poetic technique

(as against the musical symbolism of his verse) – […] has, until recently, been little explored”

2) “The language of sorrow […] is in general best suited to our Music, and with themes of this nature the poet may be amply supplied. […] While the National Musethe National Muse of other countries

adorns her temple proudly with trophies of the past, in Ireland her melancholy altarin Ireland her melancholy altar, like the the shrine of Pity at Athensshrine of Pity at Athens, is to be known only by the tears that are shed upon it” (1827)

3) Irish Melodies (unione di nuovi testi con melodie preesistenti) =Irish Melodies (unione di nuovi testi con melodie preesistenti) = radici nel patrimonio popolare raccolto da Edward Bunting (1773-1843) + estetica borghese del pianoforte di TM e John Stevenson (1761-1833) + revisione profonda degli ideali politico-culturali degli United Irishmen 4) TM : scelta tecnica delle Irish Melodies vsvs nazionalismo militante : ballad poetry TM “selected the airs, determined their pitch, and modified their rhythmic contours […]. Only

then was Stevenson invited to arrange the airs and preface them with modest ‘symphonies’ (introductions) and postludes for piano”

5) TM “received the equivalent of £500 a year for his bestselling Irish Melodies”

‘tis the last rose of summer (1805)

- prima pubbl. nel V numero delle Selection of Irish Melodies (1813)- un milione di copie di LRoS vendute solo negli USA (rispetto a 1.500.000 di copie

delle Irish Melodies)

EVOLUZIONE DEL TESTO MUSICO-LETTERARIO?

A) Castle Hyde (“old [?] Irish air”) ↓

B) The Groves of Blarney (R.A. Millikin, 1767-1815) ↓

C) ‘Tis the Last Rose of Summer (T. Moore)

ascolterete anche la “versione” di Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924), dalle The IrishMelodies of TM, op. 60 (1894), “long-standing project” del compositore anglicano diDublino, a lungo residente in Inghilterra: “closely acquainted with Moore’s Melodiessince he was a child, Stanford had chafed against what he considered to be grossviolations of the original native tunes” (Jeremy Dibble, Charles Villiers Stanford: man and musician, 2002)

→ gli esiti due esecuzioni pop contemporanee in…

Celtic Woman, 2005Clannad, 1980

Thomas Moore & Fryderick Chopin (1810-1849)

Chopin wasChopin was also called “the Mickiewicz of pianists” and compared with compared with the Irish poet Thomas Moorethe Irish poet Thomas Moore in that “through their songs they keep alive the traditions and the love of the country where they were born, and nurse it with a sweet and noble hope of liberation”.

(Jonathan Bellman, Chopin's Polish Ballade Op. 38 as Narrative of National Martyrdom, 2010)

Si aveva notizia da decenni che Chopin avesse composto delle Variazioni per pianoforte a 4 mani, ma fu solo nel 1959 […] che si poté provare che il giovane pianista aveva composto nel 1826 le Variazioni in Re maggiore Variazioni in Re maggiore per pianoforte a 4 mani su un’Aria Nazionale di Mooreper pianoforte a 4 mani su un’Aria Nazionale di Moore […]. [Di] queste ultime la Biblioteca Jagellonica di Cracovia comprò un manoscritto che Chopin stesso aveva donato al compatriota Kornel Kurzeczunowicz nel 1841 o nel 1842.

(Gastone Belotti, Chopin, 1984)

Thomas Moore & Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

In his Memoirs, BerliozBerlioz remarks with some annoyance: ‘[Mendelssohn] liked to get me to apply my irritated voice to two or three of the songs I had written on songs I had written on verses by Thomas Moore, and which he likedverses by Thomas Moore, and which he liked. Mendelssohn has always felt a certain esteem for my [. . .] lighter songs. (Eugene Asti, Mendelssohn Rediscovered: Unknown Songs, 2009)

His song subjects seem to have been chosen in such a manner that the music should generally be more important than the words. He is in the German Song, what He is in the German Song, what Thomas Moore is in poetryThomas Moore is in poetry; always graceful, delicate, even delightful, but never grand or soulstirring.(Louis C. Elson, The History of German Song, 1888)

The student should compare the Venetianisches Gondellied, Opus 57, No. 5, with the Gondola Pieces among the Songs Without Words. Mendelssohn catches the same Romantic atmosphere, but the text by Thomas Moorethe text by Thomas Moore was apparently no aid to inspiration. (John Erskine, Song Without Worlds, 1941)

Seamus Heaney, 2009

+

“Thomas Moore was

Bono and de Valera rolled into one”

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1882-1975 1960-