As I remember it, there are two statues in front of Trinity College, Dublin. I know one is of Oliver Goldsmith, but I can’t remember who is the other statue. Now, my Encyclopedia Britannica says it is of Edmund Burke, who was at Trinity with Oliver Goldsmith. However, in the marvelous booklet that comes with Hyperion’s “Thomas Moore’s Irish Melodies” it says that there is a statue of Thomas Moore outside Trinity College, Dublin. Were there three? Did the IRA remove Burke? Surely, Thomas Moore, poet and balladeer, belongs there, he was the first Catholic to graduate from Trinity College, Dublin – though they carried him as a Protestant. Who was this man Moore?
The booklet says that his reputation has plummeted. The poetry was, at best, accessible, but certainly not deep. His lyrics were meant for the common man. Hyperion’s recording gives us some 70 minutes of his songs set to music by minor composers, and some instrumentals of some of his collaborators, one of which was Edward Bunting, who appears not to have known he was a collaborator. Thomas Moore apparently lifted the melodies. It appears this theft rather than his Catholic religion made him less popular in the north.
You may remember my article on Flanagan’s “The Year of the French.” Thomas Moore actively supported the United Irish Movement. He knew Robert Emmet but avoided the· conspiracy and revolution that gripped Ireland and cost Emmet his life. In 1799 Moore went to London it was there that he had a phenomenal success, not only with the Irish melodies played on the CD, but as a librettist for Michael Kelly’s The Gipsy Prince. You remember Michael Kelly, who went to Vienna and became a friend of Mozart not to mention that he is the original Don Basilio in Figaro.
Let’s get back to the CD; The group that plays these melodies is “Invocation” led by Timothy’ Roberts. Mr. Roberts ‘studied at Cambridge and the Guild Hall School. He appears to be a specialist in “Historic Keyboards.” He can play harpsichord, organ, forte piano, and clavichord, though on the recording he only plays a grand piano and a piano forte: His singers, Julia Gooding, Ana-Maria Rincon, Rufus Muller, and Christopher Purves, are excellent as well.
This is scholarship at its finest! You feel like you are back at an Irish soiree in the early 1800’s. Mr. Roberts says no attempt was made to accommodate Cod Irish (Gaelic speech) as, after all, they are English musicians. The title of the first song on the disk, “Dear Harp of My Country,” has to give you an idea of the sentimentalism of Thomas Moore. If not, how about “The Harp That Once Thro[ugh] Tara’s Halls.” Seems to me I’ve heard that name “Tara” somewhere – hmmm – “I don’t give a damn, Scarlet.” Oh, well! How about the “Minstrel Boy. There are 31 tracks. I had one song of Thomas Moore’s before I bought the “Invocation” 31. On Prima Voce by Nimbus, I have John Charles Thomas singing (and over-singing) Moore’s “Bendemeer’s Stream.” I never heard a man overact “While singing like John Charles Thomas, but I wouldn’t be without that CD anyhow.
Now, I believe that James Joyce (who was a fine light tenor) was an admirer of Thomas Moore. I think Ellmann refers to that in the biography. I know that Byron adored and overrated Moore. Moore was also a biographer of both Byron and Sheridan. Several fine biographies of Moore are listed in Groves, but the booklet, apparently written by Roberts, recommends “The Life and Times of Thomas Moore” by Brendan Clifford.
Now, lest you think Moore is just a lightweight, remember that his poems were set to music by Berlioz, Cornelius, Duparc, Hindemith, Ireland, Jensen, MacKenzie, Mendelsohn, Parry, Tanayev (a Russian, no less), Walker, Warlock, and Weber. New accompaniments of the “Melodies” were set by Stanford. Moffat. and Brit.ten. Tennyson and Poe were admirers of the “melodies.” Then again they say that one “melody” is worth a thousand words. Buy the CD and you’ll get 31,000 words.