Podcast - To Here Knows When
Title Music
‘Irish Rhapsody Redux’ by Mark Healy
In July 2021, I recorded a 20 second video of the New Light Symphony Orchestra’s version of Victor Herbert’s ‘Irish Rhapsody’ (1930, His Master’s Voice, 78rpm Shellac 10”) playing on an old gramophone.
Herbert's ‘Irish Rhapsody’ was written in 1892 for the Gaelic Society of New York. A HUGELY popular composition at the turn of the century, the version I recorded in the video is from 1930 on HMV Records. It seems quite apt that one of the most popular Irish compositions of the late 1800s and early 1900s should be updated for the podcast.
Victor Herbert’s story is fascinating. It has been written that every professional recording artist today owes their livelihood to some degree to Victor Herbert. He is credited as being one of driving forces in founding the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP).
Photograph by Mark Healy.
Mark copied the piece of music from my Tweet and as he says himself, “mangled it with my modular (Morphagene and Monsoon).”
The result Mark calls: ‘Irish Rhapsody Redux’.
Herbert died in 1924 and was the subject of a Hollywood bio in 1939’s The Great Victor Herbert. Another Irish-American, Walter Connolly, portrays Herbert in the film.
Herbert’s “Irishness” and Irish identity have often been questioned. Marion R. Casey’s article “Was Victor Herbert Irish?” was published by History Ireland in 2017.
