w20471
| Title | Lough Swilly Railway, The, a fiddler and the Giant of Doon Rock / Iarnród Loch Súile, fidléir agus Fathach Charraig an Dúin |
| Contributors |
Derek Ball (composer) Derek Ball (author) |
| Composition date | 2016 |
| Duration (mins) | 0 |
| Category | vocal |
| Instrumentation | S Pf Vn |
| Commissioned by | |
| Key signature | |
| First line | |
| First performed | 08 09 2019 Ann Jennings, Ruth McGinley, Niamh McGowan Letterkenny |
| Notes | 'A song cycle for soprano, piano and violin ... from an original idea by Edith Pritchard and Derek Ball, based on an account written in 1938 by Cecil T. Ball' |
| Programme Note | In the summer of 2016 my cousin Edith introduced me to a little- known Co Donegal legend which might never have survived without the quick wits of my grandfather William Ball, who heard it from a local man near Kilmacrenan and committed it to memory; and my uncle Cecil Ball, who heard it from his father and recorded it in writing for a wonderfully far-sighted Irish government initiative called Dúchas ('heritage' in English) which in the 1930s collected a huge amount of endangered folkloric material from every part of Ireland, now available in digital form at www.duchas.ie. The legend concerns Doon Rock near Kilmacrenan, about 14km from where I was born in Letterkenny. It also implicates Saint Columba, or Columcille. And the building of the section of the Lough Swilly Railway track from Letterkenny to Burtonport in the late 1890s is what brought it to light. To learn about the legend, listen to the song cycle! My brother Peter and my friend and ex-neighbour Lexie McCay are both knowledgeable about the railway, for different reasons, and I had useful conversations with each of them. The wonderful Donegal soprano and opera entrepreneur Ann Jennings patiently devoted a lot of her time to trying to help me to understand how to write properly for the voice, resulting in some major revisions, and any remaining imperfections in the work are no fault of hers. I gratefully dedicate the cycle to her. The first performance of the piece was given in the Regional Cultural Centre in my home town, Letterkenny, on 8th September 2019 with Ann Jennings as soloist, ably accompanied on the piano and violin by Ruth McGinley and Niamh McGowan. |
This work is associated with the following collection items:
|