Thomas Moore
Thomas Moore set verses of Irish dispossession, loss and resistance to old Irish tunes in his Irish Melodies. Songs such as The Minstrel Boy and The Last Rose of Summer remain among the most enduring of those airs.
An Irish poet and lyricist, Moore is remembered chiefly for the Melodies, in which familiar traditional tunes carry plainspoken lines of longing, loyalty and farewell. The Minstrel Boy and The Last Rose of Summer travel easily into chamber, brass and song programmes, where their shapes stay clear and their sentiment stays direct. Beyond the songs he also wrote romantic narrative verse and sharp political satire, but the Melodies are the work that still sounds in the catalogue.
Compositions by Thomas Moore appear on
Where have you been all these years?
Claire Patti (vocal and harp), Louise Godwin (cello) and Tony Gould (piano) join in a warm tribute to musical friendship, bringing fresh interpretive colour to traditional songs they love.
The Glass Soldier
Music from Hannie Rayson’s play The Glass Soldier. Based on a true story, it is a sincere tribute to Australians who fought in the Great War: people who had little, yet gave everything.