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Irish Suite

(Leroy Anderson)

Composition written over a period of 11 days by Leroy Anderson in June 1947 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while on a visit to his family home, this Eire Society of Boston commissioned orchestral suite was originally made up four movements and called Erie Suite. The 4th and 5th movements were added in 1949 and the whole piece is dedicated to Arthur Fiedler, the then conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra.   The music is an arrangement of six traditional songs and the movements are:

(i)                  The Irish Washerwoman (a double jig)
(ii)                The Minstrel Boy (a slow march)
(iii)               The Rakes of Mallow (inciting music building up to a crescendo)
(iv)              The Wearing of Green (scherzo)
(v)                The Last Rose of Summer
(vi)              The Girl I Left Behind Me

Leroy Anderson later arranged it for a concert band and “The Wearing of Green” and “The Last Rose of Summer” were left out.

Boston Pops Orchestra recordings
RCA 60746-2-RG (CD: Irish Night at the Pops)
Conductor – Arthur Fiedler

Eastman-Rochester Pops Orchestra recordings
Mercury 434 376-2 (CD: Fennell Conducts the Music Of Leroy Anderson and Eric Coates)
Conductor  – Frederick Fennell

Richard Hayman and His Orchestra recordings
Naxos 8.555016 (CD: Irish Rhapsody)

Naxos 8.990018 (CD: Irish Rhapsody)

Sources:

  1. http://www.leroy-anderson.com/html/biography.htm
  2. http://www.leroy-anderson.com/html/hearthemusic.htm
  3. http://www.pbs.org/sleighride/Video&Music/Compositions_ISuite.htm