Notes on the Hermit Songs Texts

FROM OCTOBER 1952 TO JANUARY 1953, Samuel Barber (1910-1981) set ten Irish poems to music in a work entitled Songs, which has become one of his best known works.1 In addition to performances of the entire opus, individual songs often are excerpted for performance as well. Soprano Leontyne Price, with the composer at the piano, premiered the cycle on October 30, 1953, at the Library of Congress.2 A number of questions come to mind while studying these songs and their texts: Why did Barber choose Irish poems? What is hermit poetry? Who wrote it? What is St. Brigid's connection with beer? Why were three poems retranslated? What kind of name is Pangur for a cat? Answers are available, but unfortunately no single source contains all the answers. While many articles, dissertations, book chapters, and program notes detail Barber's musical treatment of the texts, references to the poems often merely quote the short notes printed in the score or describe the poems in general terms. Since the poems are translations of Old Irish, a comparison of translations can yield depth of meaning. A more detailed investigation of the poems themselves, their history, allusions, and translations, can enhance the interpretation of these important songs for both the teacher and performer. I do not intend to offer any definitive interpretation of the songs; rather, I present the fruits of my investigations so that the reader may come to a more informed individual interpretation. IRISH MONASTIC POETRY Before the Norse invasions of the eighth century, the Irish were extremely fond of poets and accorded them a very high social standing. The earliest original manuscripts extant show a very great breadth of learning and a high level of language development. The public was relatively literate as well. Most Irish monasteries were founded on the Augustinian Rule combining work and study, and they provided free of charge a very rich literary education for the oldest son and daughter of many Irish families (and some Welsh and English families as well). The first year of study included instruction in written Irish, Latin, and sometimes Greek, and virtually all courses were taught by means of verses. Eventually large cultural communities arose around the monasteries. Some scholars have estimated that by the seventh century the monastery religious, educational, and associated populations comprised over ten percent of the total population of Ireland. Irish scholars also traveled extensively, so that their manuscripts have been discovered and collected in many other countries. The oldest Irish poems are among the most ancient in any vernacular; they tend toward alliteration as did most European poetry of the time, but Irish poems with complex rhyme schemes in addition to alliterative patterns appear at an earlier date than in other European poetry. The main types of early Irish poetry are courtly poems, epigrams on the death of kings, religious poems, and incidental verse in tales. Monks and monastic students often wrote poems and sometimes inserted them in the margins of manuscripts they were copying. Thus, although some poems chosen by Barber may be attributed to a poet or a saint, the authors are more than likely anonymous. BARBER'S CHOICES Barber's ancestry was Irish, and at age ten he wrote a little opera based on a libretto supplied by the family's (very literate) Irish cook. Almost half of Barber's songs for voice and piano have Irish texts; his favorite poets were James Joyce and William Butler Yeats. In the summer of 1952 he toured Ireland, and in November of that year he wrote that he had found some English translations of medieval Irish poems to set as songs, appending four texts already set.3 The remaining six songs were finished by February of 1953.4 Many modern anthologies include the category Hermit Poetry. Some of the verses included by editors in such a section may have been written by hermits, but many were penned by teachers or others who idealized the hermit's way of life. …