''Three Pastels'' is a set of three pieces for piano solo composed in 1941 by John Ireland. A performance of all three pieces takes about 9 minutes. They are: # ''A Grecian Lad'' # ''The Boy Bishop'' # ''Puck's Birthday'' A

pastel A pastel () is an art medium in a variety of forms including a stick, a square a pebble or a pan of color; though other forms are possible; they consist of powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are similar to those use ...

is an artwork made using a colouring medium in the form of a stick which consists of powdered pigment and a binder; the stick too is called a pastel. Pastel drawings are often delicate in tone, which may explain Ireland's choice of title for this set of gentle impressionistic pieces. The title ''A Grecian Lad'' may have been taken from A. E. Housman's poem "Look not in my eyes, for fear", No. XV in his 1896 collection ''

A Shropshire Lad ''A Shropshire Lad'' is a collection of sixty-three poems by the English poet Alfred Edward Housman, published in 1896. Selling slowly at first, it then rapidly grew in popularity, particularly among young readers. Composers began setting the ...

''. It refers to the Greek legend of

Narcissus Narcissus may refer to: Biology * ''Narcissus'' (plant), a genus containing daffodils and others People * Narcissus (mythology), Greek mythological character * Narcissus (wrestler) (2nd century), assassin of the Roman emperor Commodus * Tiberiu ...

, who fell in love with his own reflection:'' : A Grecian lad, as I hear tell, : One that many loved in vain, : Looked into a forest well : And never looked away again. : There, when the turf in springtime flowers, : With downward eye and gazes sad, : Stands amid the glancing showers : A jonquil, not a Grecian lad.'' The jonquil is a species of narcissus, '' Narcissus jonquilla''. In the Middle Ages, it was a widespread custom to appoint a boy bishop, for example from among cathedral choristers, to parody the actual bishop on some particular church feast day. Puck is a mischievous supernatural creature in Celtic folklore. He is perhaps best known from the character Puck in Shakespeare's play ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''.

References

Solo piano pieces by John Ireland 1941 compositions {{classical-composition-stub