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Joan Trimble (18 June 1915 – 6 August 2000) was an
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
composer and pianist.
Education and career
Trimble was born in
Enniskillen
Enniskillen ( , from ga, Inis Ceithleann , 'Cethlenn, Ceithlenn's island') is the largest town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is in the middle of the county, between the Upper and Lower sections of Lough Erne. It had a population of ...
,
County Fermanagh
County Fermanagh ( ; ) is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the six counties of Northern Ireland.
The county covers an area of 1,691 km2 (653 sq mi) and has a population of 61,805 a ...
, Ireland. She studied piano with Annie Lord at the
Royal Irish Academy of Music
The Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) in Dublin, Ireland, is one of Europe's oldest music conservatoires, specialising in classical music and the Irish harp. It is located in a Georgian building on Westland Row in Dublin. An institution whic ...
, Dublin, and music at
Trinity College Dublin
, name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin
, motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin)
, motto_lang = la
, motto_English = It will last i ...
(BA 1936, BMus 1937) and continued her studies at the
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...
(RCM), London, until 1940 (piano with
Arthur Benjamin
Arthur Leslie Benjamin (18 September 1893, in Sydney – 10 April 1960, in London) was an Australian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. He is best known as the composer of '' Jamaican Rumba'' (1938) and of the '' Storm Clouds Cantata'' ...
and composition with
Herbert Howells
Herbert Norman Howells (17 October 1892 – 23 February 1983) was an English composer, organist, and teacher, most famous for his large output of Anglican church music.
Life
Background and early education
Howells was born in Lydney, Gloucest ...
and
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...
).
She first gained notice as part of a piano duo with her sister Valerie (1917–1980), earning a first prize at a Belfast music competition as early as 1925. Joan also composed a number of works for two pianos which the duo performed. A 1938 recital at the RCM, at which they performed three of them, was their breakthrough. Other composers wrote works for them, too, including ''
Jamaican Rumba'' by
Arthur Benjamin
Arthur Leslie Benjamin (18 September 1893, in Sydney – 10 April 1960, in London) was an Australian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. He is best known as the composer of '' Jamaican Rumba'' (1938) and of the '' Storm Clouds Cantata'' ...
, which became a signature tune for the duo. Trimble's ''Phantasy Trio'' (1940) won the Cobbett Prize for chamber music. The sisters also performed modern music, including works by
Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...
,
Dallapiccola
Luigi Dallapiccola (February 3, 1904 – February 19, 1975) was an Italian composer known for his lyrical twelve-tone compositions.
Biography
Dallapiccola was born in Pisino d'Istria (at the time part of Austria-Hungary, current Pazin, Cro ...
,
Arthur Bliss
Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss (2 August 189127 March 1975) was an English composer and conductor.
Bliss's musical training was cut short by the First World War, in which he served with distinction in the army. In the post-war years he qu ...
and
Lennox Berkeley
Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley (12 May 190326 December 1989) was an English composer.
Biography
Berkeley was born on 12 May 1903 in Oxford, England, the younger child and only son of Aline Carla (1863–1935), daughter of Sir James Char ...
and continued to perform in public until 1970. Trimble married in 1942 and had children, which restricted her compositional output. In 1957 her opera ''Blind Raftery'' was the third opera commissioned by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
for television, and the first
television opera written by a female composer. Between 1959 and 1977 she taught piano at the RCM, with the years since 1967 travelling from Northern Ireland.
Joan Trimble's music is conservative for her time. She combined the impressionist harmonic language she had learned since her studies with Annie Lord with melodic and rhythmic inflections derived from Irish traditional music. Her arrangements of Irish airs for two pianos do not differ stylistically from her original compositions. Her most advanced music will be found in the ''Sonatina'' for two pianos (1940) and the impressive song cycle ''The County Mayo'' (1949). Trimble's music is always melodic, tastefully written, and rewarding for performers.
After her father's death in 1967 she went to work on his newspaper, ''
The Impartial Reporter
The ''Impartial Reporter'' is a newspaper based in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland which is circulated in Fermanagh, South Tyrone and the border counties of the Republic of Ireland. It is the 3rd-oldest newspaper in Ireland, an ...
'' in Enniskillen, and cared for her husband who was severely ill for decades. She regained some attention in the 1990s when she was commissioned for a new composition and the first recordings of her music appeared. She died in Enniskillen just two weeks after her husband.
Legacy
On 18 June 2015 "Music in Fermanagh" presented A Celebration Concert, as part of the Joan Trimble Centenary Celebration, at the Ardhowen Theatre in
Enniskillen
Enniskillen ( , from ga, Inis Ceithleann , 'Cethlenn, Ceithlenn's island') is the largest town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is in the middle of the county, between the Upper and Lower sections of Lough Erne. It had a population of ...
.
Works
List derived from Jamieson (2013), see Bibliography.
Opera
*''Blind Raftery'', television opera in two scenes (BBC, May 1957)
Orchestra
*''15 Ulster Airs'' (arrangements of trad. tunes, 1939–40)
*''In Glenade'' for string orchestra (1942)
*''Suite for Strings'' for string orchestra (1951)
Chamber Music
*''The Coolin'' (Irish air) (1939) for cello & piano. London:
Hawkes & Son, c.1939.
*''Phantasy Trio'' (1940) for violin, cello, piano
*''The Pool among the Rushes'' (1941) for clarinet & piano
*''Erin go Bragh'' (1943) for brass band
*''Introduction and Air'' (1969) for two harps. Cork: Mercier Press, 1969 (in ''The Irish Harp Book'' ed. by Sheila Larchet-Cuthbert).
*''Three Diversions'' (1990) for wind quintet
Music for two pianos
*''The Humours of Carrick'' (1938). London: Winthrop Rogers, c.1938.
*''The Bard of Lisgoole'' (1938)
*''Buttermilk Point'' (1938). London: Winthrop Rogers, c.1939.
*''Sonatina'' (1940). London: Winthrop Rogers, 1941.
*''The Green Bough'' (1941). London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1951.
*''Pastorale (Hommage à F. Poulenc)'' (1943)
*''The Gartan Mother's Lullaby'' (1949). London: Boosey & Co., 1949.
*''The Heather Glen'' (1949). London: Boosey & Co., 1949.
*''Puck Fair'' (1951)
Songs
*''My Grief on the Sea'' (
Douglas Hyde
Douglas Ross Hyde ( ga, Dubhghlas de hÍde; 17 January 1860 – 12 July 1949), known as (), was an Irish academic, linguist, scholar of the Irish language, politician and diplomat who served as the first President of Ireland from June 1938 t ...
) (1937)
*''Girl's Song'' (
Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
Wilfrid Wilson Gibson (2 October 1878 – 26 May 1962) was a British Georgian poet, associated with World War I but also the author of much later work.
Early work
Gibson was born in Hexham, Northumberland, and left the north for London in 1914 ...
) (1937)
*''Green Rain'' (
Mary Webb
Mary Gladys Webb (25 March 1881 – 8 October 1927) was an English Romance (literary fiction), romance novelist and poet of the early 20th century, whose work is set chiefly in the Shropshire countryside and among Shropshire characters and ...
) (1937). London: Winthrop Rogers, 1938.
*''The County Mayo'', song cycle (
James Stephens) (1949)
Recordings
* ''Celtic Keyboards: Duets by Irish Composers'', performed by Bruce Posner & Donald Garvelmann (pianos), on: Koch International Classics 3-7287-2 H1 (CD, 1994). Contains: ''Sonatina'', ''The Gartan Mother's Lullaby'', ''The Heather Glen'', ''The Bard of Lisgoole'', ''Buttermilk Point'', ''The Green Bough'', ''The Humours of Carrick''.
* ''Silver Apples of the Moon – Irish Classical Music'', performed by Irish Chamber Orchestra, Fionnuala Hunt (cond.), on: Black Box Music BBM 1003 (CD, 1997). Contains: ''Suite for Strings''.
* ''Joan Trimble: Two Pianos – Songs and Chamber Music'', performed by Patricia Bardon (mezzo), Joe Corbett (baritone), Una Hunt (piano), Roy Holmes (piano), Dublin Piano Trio, on: Marco Polo 8.225059 (CD, 1999). Contains: ''The Cows are a-milking'', ''A Gartan Mother's Lullaby'', ''The Heather Glen'', ''My Grief on the Sea'', ''Green Rain'', ''Girl's Song'', ''Sonatina'', ''Pastorale (Hommage à F. Poulenc)'', ''Phantasy Trio'', ''Puck Fair'', ''The Green Bough'', ''The County Mayo'', ''Buttermilk Point'', ''The Bard of Lisgoole'', ''The Humours of Carrick''.
* ''Phantasy Trio'', performed by Fidelio Trio, on
RTÉ lyric fm CD 153(CD, 2016).
*''The Pool Among the Rushes'', performed by John Finucane (clarinet) and Elisaveta Blumina (piano), on
Genuin GEN 18495(CD, 2018).
* ''Green Rain''; ''Girl's Song''; ''My Grief on the Sea'', performed by Carolyn Dobbin (mezzo) & Iain Burnside (piano), on
Delphian Records DCD 34187(CD, 2018).
Bibliography
* Philip Hammond: "Woman of Parts: Joan Trimble", in: ''Soundpost'' 5 (1984–85), p. 24–7.
* "Joan Trimble", in: ''Contemporary Music Review'' 9 (1994), p. 277–84.
* Axel Klein: ''Die Musik Irlands im 20. Jahrhundert'' (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1996).
* Lisa McCarroll: ''The Celtic Twilight as Reflected in the Two-Piano Works of Joan Trimble (1915-2000)'' (DMA dissertation, Moores School of Music, University of Houston, 2013).
* Ruth Stanley: ''Joan Trimble (1915–2000) and the Issue of her 'Irish' Musical Identity'' (MA thesis, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, 2003; unpublished).
* Alasdair Jamieson, : "Trimble, Joan" and "Trimble, Valerie", in: ''The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland'', ed. by Harry White & Barra Boydell (Dublin: UCD Press, 2013), p. 1008–9.
* Alasdair Jamieson: ''Music in Northern Ireland. Two Major Figures: Havelock Nelson (1917–1996) and Joan Trimble (1915–2000)'' (Tolworth, Surrey: Grosvenor House Publishing, 2017), .
References
External links
* Profile a
Contemporary Music Centre, Dublin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trimble, Joan
1915 births
2000 deaths
20th-century classical composers
20th-century classical pianists
20th-century people from Northern Ireland
20th-century women composers
Alumni of the Royal College of Music
Alumni of the Royal Irish Academy of Music
Alumni of Trinity College Dublin
Classical composers from Northern Ireland
Classical musicians from Northern Ireland
Classical pianists from Northern Ireland
Composers for piano
Composers from Northern Ireland
Women classical composers from Northern Ireland
Women opera composers
Irish classical composers
Irish women classical composers
Musicians from County Fermanagh
Opera composers from Northern Ireland
People from Enniskillen
Women classical pianists
20th-century women pianists