Catalogue title: 25 Irish Songs.

Scoring: 1 or 2 voices, violin, cello, piano.

Composed: 1810-12.

Individual item 1 from the corresponding collection, not the complete set.

Item in the set: The... Read more

Catalogue title: 25 Irish Songs.

Scoring: 1 or 2 voices, violin, cello, piano.

Composed: 1810-12.

Individual item 1 from the corresponding collection, not the complete set.

Item in the set: The Return to Ulster. Larghetto affettuoso (F minor).

Sung text (original language):
Once again, but how chang’d since my
wanderings began
I have heard the deep voice of the
Lagan and Bann,
And the pines of Clanbrasil resound to
the roar
That wearies the echoes of fair
Tullamore.
Alas! My poor bosom, and why
shouldst thou burn!
With the scenes of my youth can its
raptures return?
Can I live the dear life of delusion
again,
That flow’d when these echoes first
mix’d with my strain?
It was then that around me, though
poor and unknown,
High spells of mysterious enchantment
were thrown;
The streams were of silver, of diamond
the dew,
The land was an Eden, for fancy was
new.
I had heard of our bards, and my soul
was on fire
At the rush of their verse, and the
sweep of their lyre:
To me ‘twas not legend, nor tale to the
ear,
But a vision of noontide, distinguish’d
and clear.
Ultonia’s old heroes awoke at the call;
And renew’d the wild pomp of the
chace and the hall;
And the standard of Fion flash’d fierce
from on high,
Like a burst of the sun when the
tempest is nigh.
It seem’d that the harp of green Erin
once more
Could renew all the glories she
boasted of yore.
Yet why at remembrance, fond heart,
shouldst thou burn?
They were days of delusion, and can
not return.

Sir Walter Scott

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