Thomas Christopher Kelly (5 December 1917 – 31 March 1985) was an Irish composer, teacher and conductor.

Life

T. C. Kelly was born in

Wexford Wexford () is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N11 N ...

and studied with

John F. Larchet John Francis Larchet (13 July 1884 – 10 August 1967) was an Irish composer and teacher. He studied at Trinity College Dublin (MusB 1915, MusD 1917), also at the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) with Michele Esposito. Larchet was music dire ...

at University College Dublin (BMus, 1943). After having spent a period as organist and choirmaster in Newry,

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

, he was appointed music master at

Clongowes Wood College Clongowes Wood College SJ is a voluntary boarding school for boys near Clane, County Kildare, Ireland, founded by the Jesuits in 1814, which features prominently in James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Yo ...

County Kildare County Kildare ( ga, Contae Chill Dara) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county, ...

(1952–1985), a position which involved teaching, playing organ in the boys' chapel and conducting the school choir and orchestra. He won several national competitions with this choir. He was a well-known composer in mid-20th-century Ireland, albeit in a conservative idiom. Kelly died in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

Music

Kelly's prolific output consists mainly of skilful arrangements of Irish traditional music for orchestra, mixed choir or small instrumental ensembles such as violin and piano. Although mainly known as a composer of miniatures, he also wrote a three-movement piano concerto (1960) and three full-scale congregational masses. Many of his orchestral arrangements and some original works were radio commissions for the then Radio Éireann Light Orchestra (today the RTÉ Concert Orchestra). In the 1960s and '70s some of his works were recorded on LP by EMI Ireland. Kelly regarded himself as "bilingual" in a musical sense, having grown up both with traditional music and European art music at the same time. "Purely a lyric composer" in his own words, Kelly belonged to a group of conservative Irish composers who consciously eschewed more contemporary musical idioms. His music is tonal throughout and employs melodic traces of traditional music even in his original works.Klein (2013), as above.

Selected works

Orchestral *''Three Pieces for Strings'' (1949) *''Variations on a Traditional Air'' (1949) *''Wexford Rhapsody'' (c1954) for "symphonic wind orchestra" *''Variations on the Bold Fenian Men'' (1956) for piano and orchestra *''Fantasia on Two Irish Airs'' (1958) for harp and orchestra *Fantasia (1958) for harp and orchestra *Piano Concerto (1960) *''Rhapsody on Children's Themes'' (1963) for piano and orchestra *''Dance Rhapsody No. 1'' (1963) for violin and orchestra *''Dance Rhapsody No. 2'' (1965) for violin and orchestra *Concertino (1965) for piano and orchestra *Capriccio (1965) for piano and orchestra *''The Dream and the Reality'' (1966) *Interlude (1966) for cor anglais and orchestra *''Gaelic Suite No. 1'' (1974) *''O'Carolan Suite in Baroque Style'' (1977) for violin and orchestra Chamber music *''Suite for Military Band'' (1979) for brass band *''Irish Tunes'' (2 vols.; publ. 1984) for violin and keyboard *many undated folksong arrangements for violin and piano, piano trio etc. Piano music *''Four Interludes'' (1949) *''Suite of Irish Airs'' (1953) *Piano Sonata in D major (1958) Choral music *''The Sally Gardens'' ( Patrick Joseph McCall) (1948; rev. 1960) *''Everlasting Voices'' (

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

) (1959) *''Lament for O'Donovan Rossa'' (Peadar Ó hAnnracháin) (1967) for speaker, chorus and orchestra *''The Croppy Boy'' ( William B. McBurney) (1974) *''Go Now and Dream'' (

Thomas Moore Thomas Moore (28 May 1779 – 25 February 1852) was an Irish writer, poet, and lyricist celebrated for his ''Irish Melodies''. Their setting of English-language verse to old Irish tunes marked the transition in popular Irish culture from Irish ...

) (1974) for soprano, mezzo, chorus and piano *''Mass in Gregorian Style'' (1974) *''Mise Raiftearai'' (Anthony Raftery) (1975) *''Mass for Peace'' (1976) *''Mass in Honour of Our Lady of Loreto'' (1980) *numerous folksong arrangements Songs *''The Sally Gardens'' (

P.J. McCall Patrick Joseph McCall (6 March 1861 – 8 March 1919) was an Irish songwriter and poet, known mostly as the author of lyrics for popular ballads. He was assisted in putting the Wexford ballads, dealing with the 1798 Rising, to music by Arthur W ...

) (1947) *''The Cloney Carol'' (Dorothy Mabel Large) (1955) *''Connaught Love Song'' (trad.) (1967) *''Crónán na mbeach'' (trad.) (1967) *''The Lake Isle of Innisfree'' (

) (1967)

Recordings

*''Three Pieces for Strings'', performed by Radio Éireann Symphony Orchestra, Milan Horvat (cond.), on: Decca DL 9844 (LP, 1956). *''Mass for Peace'', performed by Clonliffe College Choir, T.C. Kelly (cond.), on: Network Tapes NTO 55C (MC, 1977). *''Three Pieces for Strings'' and ''O'Carolan Suite in Baroque Style'', performed by Irish Chamber Orchestra, Fionnuala Hunt (cond.), on: Black Box Music BBM 1003 (CD, 1997). *''The Mother'', performed by Rachel Kelly (Mez) and Una Hunt (pf), on
RTÉ lyric fm CD 153
(CD, 2016).

Bibliography

* Edgar M. Deale: ''A Catalogue of Contemporary Irish Composers'' (Dublin: Music Association of Ireland, 1968; 2/1972) * Bernard Harrison (ed.): ''Catalogue of Contemporary Irish Music'' (Dublin: Irish Composers' Centre, 1982) * Axel Klein: ''Irish Classical Recordings — A Discography of Irish Art Music'' (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2001) * Richard Pine: ''Music and Broadcasting in Ireland'' (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2005)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, T. C. 1917 births 1985 deaths 20th-century Irish classical composers 20th-century Irish conductors (music) 20th-century Irish male musicians 20th-century Irish organists Irish classical composers of church music Irish choral conductors Irish male classical composers Irish music arrangers Irish male organists Musicians from County Wexford Irish male conductors (music) Alumni of University College Dublin