“Oh! The praties they grow small over here…”
Edward Joseph Collins (1886-1951) was born to Irish-American parents in Joliet, Illinois. Though he studied abroad with Max Bruch and Engelbert Humperdinck, it was in Chicago that he made his career. Nearly a generation older than Copland and Gershwin, he too found inspiration in African-American spirituals, cowboy songs, and jazz.
Collins’ relationship to the Irish was a complex one. Nonetheless, he could not escape the pull of his heritage and its music. This week on “The Lost Chord,” the composer remembers the land of his forebears with three meditations on Irish folk song for St. Patrick’s Day. That’s “Irish Ties Are Smiling,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.