Description
A new brass band release for 2023 which also welcomes Fiona Neary as a new member of our ever-growing family of writers!
This traditional Irish folk tune has been beautifully arranged for brass band, offering a tranquil moment to your programme with a memorable jaunty jig section to keep your listeners on their toes! Every concert needs that ‘Aaahhhh’ element, and Down By The Salley Gardens certainly brings all the qualities required to meet that need.
This original traditional Irish melody has been referred to by a variety of titles: ‘Mourne Shore’, ‘Moorlough Shore’ and ‘The Maids of Mourne Shore’, and is believed to have dated back to the 17th-18th century. In 1889, William Butler Yeats had his poem ‘Down By The Salley Gardens’ published in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems. The verse was then later set to the Irish melody by Herbert Hughes in 1909. Since this combining, the music has become synonymous with the poem and naturally adopted the poem’s title.
Due to the beauty of the melody and the emotive words of the associated poem, both elements of this work has been embraced by a variety of artistes, including recordings by The Corrs and Sinead O’Connor; John Ireland (1879–1962) set the words to an original melody in his song cycle Songs Sacred and Profane, written in 1929–31; there is a vocal setting by the poet and composer Ivor Gurney, which was published in 1938; and Benjamin Britten published a setting of the poem in 1943.
