Tarik O'Regan: The Spring

For SATB Chorus.

Jointly commissioned by the National Chamber Choir and the Cork International Choral Festival for the seminar 'from composition to performance, the seminar on choral music'.

This work was premièred at the Cork International Choral Festival on 2nd May 2008 by the National Chamber Choir of Ireland conducted by Bo Holten.

Text: Acallam na Senórach (12th century)After the battles of Commar, Gabair, and Ollarba, the Fían was destroyed. The survivors scatteredacross Ireland and, by the time our story begins, only two of the nobles of this ancient Fían werestill alive: Oisín and Caílte. Sixteen of the Fían warriors travelled with them across the wooded andflower-covered slopes of the Fews.

Patrick was reciting his office. Then, his priests, seeing Caílte and his men approaching, wereseized with fear and horror at the sight of these warriors of an earlier age. Then Patrick, apostle tothe Irish, arose and sprinkled holy water on these great men, for a thousand legions of demons hadbeen above their heads. The great men then sat down.

‘Well, my friend, there is something I would ask you,’ said Patrick to Caílte. ‘Find us a well of purewater close by, so that we might baptize the peoples.’ Caílte took Patrick by the hand and togetherthey went over the ramparts of the fortress. Just nine steps from the portal they saw a lovely crystalclearspring. Then Caílte recited these lines:

A thoibur Trágha dhá bhan

àlaind do bhilar barrhglan.

ó ro tréigedh do chnuas ort

nír’ léiced fás dot fochlocht,

Is uait dochuadar in Fiann

dar’ marbad Coinchend coimfial,

dar’ cuiredh ár Feinde Find.

isin mhadain ós Maolghlind.

A(r) marbadh chon ocus fer

ar n-athchuma laoch láingheal

co cuala glaodh Gharaidh ghlain

adhaigh re taobh in topair.

(‘O spring of Tráig Dá Ban,
lovely your bright cress sprigs;
Since your pruning was neglected,
your brooklime has multiplied.

‘From you the Fían set out,
when generous Coinchenn was slain,
When Finn’s Fían was slaughtered,
in the morning above Maelglenn.

‘After the slaughter of dogs and men, after the
wounding of shining warriors,
Garad’s cry was heard at night
beside the spring.)

‘You have lightened our spirits and our mind, even though our religious life is being disrupted andour prayers neglected,’ said Patrick. Aibelán and Solusbrethach, his two guardian angels, thencame to Patrick and he asked them if it were the wish of the King of Heaven and Earth that helisten to these tales of the Fián.

The angels answered him with one voice: 'Dear holy cleric, those old heroes tell you no more thana third of their stories, because their memories are faulty. Have these stories written down onscribes' tablets in the language of poets; the hearing of them will provide entertainment for thelords and commons of later times.'

The angels then left them.

Originating translation of the Acallam na Senórach by Ann Dooley and Harry Roe (Tales of theElders of Ireland, Oxford University Press, 1999); adapted for this musical setting by GeraldineParsons and Tarik O’Regan.