Hibernia Suite

1, Land of Youth (Tir na nO´g)

2. The Lover (Leannán)

3. Dancing (Dahmsa)

Hibernia Suite is available in two versions – string orchestra and string quartet.

Congratulations on a well-received performance of a wonderful work. The audience enjoyed the piece very much and responded to it with great enthusiasm. The musicians played well and offered positive comments about the work. This pleased me and I am sure it will please you as well. It give me great pleasure to be able to offer deserving music the chance to be played and heard. That pleasure is magnified when the composer is equally deserving. You are a kind and generous soul and I am pleased and proud to know you and your music. I wish you continued successes!

Anthony LaGruth

Music Director and Conductor

Garden State Philharmonic

TO LISTEN:

1. Mvt. 1 - Land of Youth (Tir na nO´g)
   

2. on YouTube
   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loA8ru3bgZU&t=4s

Mvt. 2 - The Lover (Leannán)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4s-Kx1Mreo

Mvt. 3- Dancing (Dahmsa)

On YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okcwJC4b-As

Hibernia Suite was adapted for string quartet in 2002, premiered by the internationally acclaimed Maia Quartet, and has been enjoying a life in various chamber music venues since then as well.

Program Notes

Hibernia, in Latin, means "Ireland," and this piece is meant to reflect and honor my Irish heritage. Since I spent the past twenty years writing about the Mediterranean, I decided that it was about time to begin to explore my own ancestry and my ties to the Motherland.

The first movement, “Land of Youth (Tir na nÓg)” could be described as music for a festive occasion. It has a recurring phrase that keeps coming back throughout the movement to link the various ideas together. There are hints of a Latin Mass in a few cadences. It is very contrapuntal or, as my adopted father would say, "using a lot of Tchaikovskian polyphony." It is upbeat and happy, like embarking on an expectant journey from Dublin and traveling on through the lakes, rivers, and countryside of Eire.

The second movement, “The Lover (Leannán)”” is a piece reflecting the love I feel for people, life, and nature. And, as with a lot of love, there is also a hint of melancholy and sadness in this expression. I wanted this movement to recognize the past while existing in the present. A string quartet introduces the melody, and then ideas and sentiments play back and forth with the orchestra expressing the give and take, joy and sadness, and fragility and infinity of human feeling.

“Dancing (Damhsa)” begins with tutti chords reminiscent in style of the first movement, but within six measures the music begins to evolve and dance into a jig. Playful in nature, it reflects the humor and joy and high spirits of a wonderful evening of good friends, a lot of storytelling, and the enthusiasm of being with people I love.

Hibernia Suite

Land of Youth (Tir na nO´g) - 5-1/2 minutes

The Lover (Leannán) - 4 -/2 minutes

Dancing (Dahmsa) - 5 1/2 minutes

String Orchestra Instrumentation

Violin I

Violin II

Viola

Violoncello

Contra Bass

A String Quartet edition also available.

Total Duration: Approximately 16 minutes

This music was commissioned and premiered by the Wartburg Community Symphony Orchestra, on February 15, 1997. The second set of (3) performances were given by the String Sinfonia of Women-in-Music - Columbus on November 12,16 & 23, 1997; the third performance by the Iowa State Symphony (revised third movement premiere) on March 26, 1998; and the fourth performance by the Cedar Rapids Symphony, Christian Tiemeyer, Music Director and Conductor, on April 4, 1998. Since then it has been performed more than a hundred times by orchestras throughout the United States and abroad including the Blackburn Symphony Orchestra (UK), Iowa City Community String Orchestra,  Kona Performing Arts Center (HI), Garden State Philharmonic (NJ), Clenson University Symphony, Knox County Symphony (OH), Independence Sinfonia (PA), Women-in-Music Columbus (OH), etc,

In 2016 the string orchestra suite was recorded by the Moravian Philharmonic in the Czech Republic

under the direction of Kirk Edward Smith.

All rights of performance and broadcast are strictly reserved.

Copyright © 1997, 1998 by Linda Robbins Coleman.

This music is licensed through Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI)

Ich am of Irlonde

Ant of the holy lande

Of Irlonde.

Gode sire, pray ich the,

For of saynte charite,

Come ant dance wyth me

In Irloand.

Anonymous

Let Erin remember the days of old,

Ere her faithless sons betray'd her;

When Malachi wore the collar of gold,

Which he won from her proud invader,

When her kings, with standard of green, unfurl'd,

Led the Red-branch Knights to danger; -

Ere the emerald gem of the western world

Was set in the crown of a stranger.

On Lough Neagh's bank, as the fisherman strays,

When the clear cold eve's declining,

He sees the round towers of other days

In the wave beneath him shining;

Thus shall memory often, in dreams sublime,

Catch a glimpse of the days that are over;

Thus, sighing, look through the waves of time

For the long faded glories they cover

                                   

                           Thomas Moore

Carey Bostian and the Iowa City Community String Orchestra.

Dress rehearsal for a performance of Hibernia Suite on November 24, 2019.

At the Englert Theatre, Iowa City, Iowa.