The first group of 43 folksong settings that Beethoven sent to George Thomson began with many Welsh tunes (Day 237). The second half of Group 1 includes settings later collected as WoO 152 (“25 Irish Songs”) and WoO 153 (“20 Irish Songs”).
#Beethoven250 Day 238
Setting of “In Vain to this Desart” CFS I/27 (WoO 152, No. 17), 1809–10
This first and third verses are by Anne Grant, the second by Robert Burns. “Desart” is an obsolete spelling of “desert,” which here is a metaphor.
#Beethoven250 Day 238
Setting of “On the Massacre of Glencoe” CFS I/28 (WoO 152, No. 5), 1809–10
Sir Walter Scott recounts the 1692 killing of 30 Jacobites in Glen Coe, Scotland, resisting the removal of James II in the Glorious Revolution.
#Beethoven250 Day 238
Setting of “Dermot and Shelah” CFS I/29 (WoO 152, No. 14), 1809–10
Dermot bemoans the loss of Shelah, and Shelah that of Dermot. They want to die until they see each other and “put off their dying, to toy and to play.”
#Beethoven250 Day 238
Setting of “The Soldier’s Dream” CFS I/31 (WoO 152, No. 9), 1809–10
Poet Thomas Campbell tells of a night where the “weary to sleep, and the wounded to die” a vision is seen of the “war-broken soldier” returning home.
#Beethoven250 Day 238
Setting of “They bid me Slight my Dermot Dear” CFS I/32 (WoO 152, No. 18), 1809–10
William Smyth tells how the soprano’s love for Dermot is slighted by others but that will be no obstacle to “how happy should we be.”
#Beethoven250 Day 238
Setting of “Once more I hail thee” CFS I/35 (WoO 152, No. 3), 1809–10
Starting at 7:20 in this video, Robert Burns hails “gloomy December” recalling the painful memory of “parting with Nancy, ah! ne’er to meet more!”
#Beethoven250 Day 238
Setting of “English Bulls; or, The Irishman in London” CFS I/36 (WoO 152, No. 12), 1809–10
Starting at 15:45 in this video, an Irishman recounts all the crazy wonders he saw in his visit to London. The poet is unknown.
#Beethoven250 Day 238
Setting of “The Morning Air plays on my Face” CFS I/38 (WoO 152, No. 4), 1809–10
Starting at 16:35 in this video, a young man's revels in nature lead to a meeting with his sweetheart, by Scottish poet Joanna Baillie.
#Beethoven250 Day 238
Setting of “Sweet Power of Song” CFS I/39 (WoO 152, No. 2), 1809–10
This duet to a text by Joanna Baillie heralds “Sweet Power of Song! Thanks flow to thee from every kind and gentle breast!”
#Beethoven250 Day 238
Setting of “Sweet Power of Song” CFS I/39 (WoO 152, No. 2), 1809–10
An arrangement for six instruments and three vocalists performed as a moving quarantine video.
#Beethoven250 Day 238
Setting of “Since Greybeards inform us that Youth will decay” CFS I/40 (WoO 153, No. 4), 1809–10
If youth will decay, “let’s seize the bright moments while yet in our prime.” (The next song continues after this one.)
#Beethoven250 Day 238
Setting of “Paddy O’Rafferty, Merry and Vigorous” CFS I/42 (WoO 153, No. 14), 1809–10
Starting at 1:20 in this video, Paddy is a pottery turner who makes a break for a better life, and perhaps finds it.