The Parting Glass (2020)
Commission and premiere
The Amity Trio (Kimberly Carballo, Katie Dukes, Michael Walker)
Instrumentation
Soprano
Horn in F
Piano
Duration
3'30
The Amity Trio (Kimberly Carballo, Katie Dukes, Michael Walker)
Instrumentation
Soprano
Horn in F
Piano
Duration
3'30
Perusal score
coming soon
coming soon
Performance notes
In the vocal line, all rhythmic durations shorter than a quarter note can be interpreted freely, and traditional Irish vocal ornamentation is welcome.
The horn player is asked to use a mute in the opening and closing sections of the song.
Program note
This piece was commissioned by The Amity Trio as part of their 2020-21 season. I’m often drawn to the sensation of a shapeless, inchoate idea, like a memory that you can’t—or won’t—look at head-on, and this song achingly sits right in that emotional realm.
As I sat down to set this well-known song, I began to imagine the speaker of the poem as a person who, like so many stoic members of my Scottish family, know full well they’ve been an ass but don’t rightly know how to say they’re sorry. They’ll get as far as saying something elusive and pregnant with meaning, beautiful in its implications and open-armed in its invitation for reconciliation, but the gesture comes too late, and the damage has been irreparably done—and they know it. I think of the second strain (“Of all the comrades…”) as the speaker finally finding their footing and gathering steam in their yarn, becoming so wrapped up in the beauty of what they’re doing to realize no one is coming along with them emotionally. I love the unresolved dissonance throughout the poem between the speaker’s self-awareness and their inability to directly say, without emotional manipulation, that they love the people they’ve wronged. I hope that this musical setting does that justice.
Of all the money e’er I had,
I spent it in good company,
And all the harm I have ever done,
Alas it was to none but me.
And all I’ve done for want of wit,
To mem’ry now, I can’t recall.
So fill to me the parting glass,
Good night and joy be with you all.
Of all the comrades that e’er I had,
They’re sorry for my going away,
And all the sweethearts that e’er I had,
They’d wish me one more day to stay.
But since it falls onto my lot
That I must go and you must not,
I’ll gently rise, and softly call:
Good night and joy be with you all.
In the vocal line, all rhythmic durations shorter than a quarter note can be interpreted freely, and traditional Irish vocal ornamentation is welcome.
The horn player is asked to use a mute in the opening and closing sections of the song.
Program note
This piece was commissioned by The Amity Trio as part of their 2020-21 season. I’m often drawn to the sensation of a shapeless, inchoate idea, like a memory that you can’t—or won’t—look at head-on, and this song achingly sits right in that emotional realm.
As I sat down to set this well-known song, I began to imagine the speaker of the poem as a person who, like so many stoic members of my Scottish family, know full well they’ve been an ass but don’t rightly know how to say they’re sorry. They’ll get as far as saying something elusive and pregnant with meaning, beautiful in its implications and open-armed in its invitation for reconciliation, but the gesture comes too late, and the damage has been irreparably done—and they know it. I think of the second strain (“Of all the comrades…”) as the speaker finally finding their footing and gathering steam in their yarn, becoming so wrapped up in the beauty of what they’re doing to realize no one is coming along with them emotionally. I love the unresolved dissonance throughout the poem between the speaker’s self-awareness and their inability to directly say, without emotional manipulation, that they love the people they’ve wronged. I hope that this musical setting does that justice.
Of all the money e’er I had,
I spent it in good company,
And all the harm I have ever done,
Alas it was to none but me.
And all I’ve done for want of wit,
To mem’ry now, I can’t recall.
So fill to me the parting glass,
Good night and joy be with you all.
Of all the comrades that e’er I had,
They’re sorry for my going away,
And all the sweethearts that e’er I had,
They’d wish me one more day to stay.
But since it falls onto my lot
That I must go and you must not,
I’ll gently rise, and softly call:
Good night and joy be with you all.
