John Ireland

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About John Ireland

Ireland’s musical idiom combined English Romanticism with an impressionist finesse derived from Debussy, and a dash of Stravinsky-influenced modernism. Born in Cheshire in 1879, he won a scholarship to London’s Royal College of Music at age 14; soon afterward, both his parents died, a blow from which his introverted emotional life never fully recovered. For many years Ireland worked as a church organist and taught piano at the RCM. His large output of songs explored an expressive world ranging from the fervent lyricism of “Sea-Fever” (1913) to the taut realism of two Thomas Hardy cycles (1925 and 1926). He also composed many short solo piano pieces, while his orchestral works included Mai-Dun (1921), inspired by the setting of an iron-age hill fort in Dorsetshire. His Piano Concerto (1930) was dedicated to a young student to whom he was attracted (though a relationship never blossomed), Helen Perkin, who played the work frequently. In 1953 he retired to live in a converted windmill in Sussex, where he died nine years later.

HOMETOWN
Inglewood, Bowden, Cheshire, England
BORN
August 13, 1879
GENRE
Classical

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