{"id":66,"date":"2022-10-12T14:41:32","date_gmt":"2022-10-12T14:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seanoriada.ie\/wordpress\/?page_id=66"},"modified":"2022-10-12T14:41:32","modified_gmt":"2022-10-12T14:41:32","slug":"biography-sean-o-riada","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/seanoriada.ie\/index.php\/biography-sean-o-riada\/","title":{"rendered":"Biography Se\u00e1n \u00d3 Riada"},"content":{"rendered":"
Se\u00e1n \u00d3 Riada<\/big><\/big><\/big><\/div>\n
Se\u00e1n \u00d3 Riada was born in Cork on August Ist, 1931, while his father, a sergeant in the Garda S\u00edochana, was stationed in Adare, Co. Limerick. His mother was Julia Creedon from Kilnamartyra in the Barony of West Muskerry, and his father Sean Reidy of Kilmihil, Co. Clare. Both were of farming stock with strong cultural traditions; she a concertina and melodian player with many of the songs of her area, and he having once studied the fiddle with Patrick Kelly. \u00d3 Riada’s cradle songs were “Codlaigi Einini” from his father and “Cois an Ghaorthaidh” from his mother.<\/p>\n

At the age of four he went to the Christian Brothers’ School in Adare. His first teacher was Brother Long from Dingle, who set the foundation for his strong passion for the Irish language. At the age of seven he got his first violin lesson from Granville Metcalfe who used to come out to Adare from Limerick once a week to teach music. A year later he began to study the piano. When he was ten he joined the Limerick Club and performed with them until he left Adare to go to boarding school. During this period he also studied theory, counterpoint and harmony with Professor Van de Veld. In 1943 he won a scholarship to Farrenferris Seminary School in Cork, from where he matriculated in 1947, and, being too young to enter University, he spent the following year in St. Munchins in Limerick where he took his Leaving Certificate.<\/p>\n

He entered U.C.C. in 1948 on a scholarship and read first Arts with Music as a subject. He also took Greek, Latin and Irish. U.C.C. in those days was small, and exciting because of the number of foreign students who flocked there after the Second World War. \u00d3 Riada plunged into a wide course of reading and talking which was oriented towards the ancient and modern cultures of Europe. In 1957 he graduated with honours in Music.<\/p>\n

In September, 1953 he married Ruth Coghlan and they had seven children, Peadar, Reitseal, Eoghan, Alasdar, Cathal, Sorcha, Liadh. The last two children were born after he had moved to the Gaeltacht but the whole family were brought up through Irish.<\/p>\n

Also in 1953 he was appointed Assistant Director of Music in Radio Eireann.
\nDr. Arthur Young was his Co-Assistant Director, and in those good old days they graciously attended symphony concerts and gave short shrift to various “trad fids” who came up for audition, and also to various deputations from the country, including a very persistent petitioner from Cuil Aodha, whose house Sean was destined to buy ten years later.<\/p>\n

0 Riada resigned from Radio Eireann in 1955, and, in a logical extension to all of his classical reading and studies, took off to starve in a garret in Paris. Here he met many artists and musicians through R.D.T.F. But here also he turned towards the Aisling which had been hovering over all his life and he ended up by saying to his wife “I’d rather be breaking stones in Ireland than be the richest man living in Europe”.<\/p>\n

Back in Dublin, he began the most prolific period of his life, starting with many arrangements for the Radio Eireann Singers and Light Orchestra, doing original compositions for Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra, writing for solo voice and for piano. During this time he was working as Music Director of the Abbey Theatre. This position gave him a good deal of spare time and allowed him to do many radio broadcasts and to work on incidental music for films.<\/p>\n

Side by side with the flowering of 0 Riada’s European classical creativity another theme began to emerge during those seven years. The spirit of this theme was first expressed in the music which he wrote for the film Mise Eire. The impact of this particular music on the nation in 1959 was dramatic and immediate and it marked the beginning of 0 Riada’s rapport with the people of Ireland and their culture. He began a deep study of Irish traditional music which resulted in a radio series entitled “Our Musical Heritage”. He proceeded to experiment with combinations of musicians to evolve Ceoltoiri Chualann.\u00a0\u00a0 This group was first presented to the public as a folk or traditional orchestra providing the incidental music for the Abbey Theatre presentation of the Honey Spike, a play by Brian Mc Mahon.\u00a0\u00a0 Their first formal appearance as a stage group was at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin on ……….<\/p>\n

While he was still in Dublin, he made his first contact with the Gaeltacht when he spent the summer of 1959 with his family in Bru na Gr\u00e1ige (Corca Dhuibhne) at the invitation of an tAthair Tadhg 0 Murchu. it\u00a0 was after this visit, which made a deep impression on them, that the 0 Riadas began to hold the now famous Ceilidhe at their home in Galloping Green, which brought together all the strands of Sean’s various interests – muintir na Gaeltachta, traditional and classical musicians, poets, diplomats, plumbers and business men.<\/p>\n

Finally, and once more in a logical extension of his cultural development, he resigned from the Abbey in 1962 and moved to Corca Dhuibhne where he lived for a year doing freelance work for R.T.E. and writing for the “Irish Times”, until in October, 1963 he was appointed assistant lecturer in Music at University College, Cork.<\/p>\n

On his appointment he moved to Cuil Aodha to live in An Draighean. Here, ten miles from where his mother was born, 0 Riada felt he had come home. Henceforth he regarded all trips to Cork, Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh, London, Canada, America for lectures, concerts, recordings and festivals, in the nature of forages from his home base to bring back spoils and to further the interests of the Naisiun Gaolach. He made 16mm. films, wrote music, went fishing, studied Indian and Oriental Music,\u00a0 sat on National Commissions and committees, and generally was deeply involved in the community.\u00a0 He\u00a0 formed a choir and and wrote his first Mass for them.\u00a0 His fascination with things spiritual led him to write a further two Masses (Glenstall and an Irish Goverment commisioned Requem).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He died on the 3rd of October, 1971 in Kings College Hospital after a short illness brought on by the effect of excessive alcohol use on an\u00a0 inhereited weak liver. He lies buried in Reilig Gobnatan.<\/p>\n

His 20 years work includes:<\/p>\n

Classical work:
\n(at some stage he switched from the word Opus to that of Nomos in\u00a0 numbering his work )<\/p>\n

Setting for four poems by Ezra Pound\u00a0 \u201cLustra\u201d\u00a0 (opus 1) (1953)
\nSettings of three poems by Thomas Kinsella\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0(opus 2)\u00a0 (1954)
\nSuite for unaccompanied violin\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0(opus 3)
\nPrelude and Fugue for Harpsichord\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0(Opus 4)\u00a0 (BBC)
\nSonata for Piano Forte, 9 short preludes for pianoforte (Opus 5) (Radiodiffusion Francaise \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0July 1954)
\nFour songs for Baritone and Piano (opus 6)\u00a0 \u201cOh Mistress Mine\u201d – Shakespeare, \u201cD\u2019une \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Prison\u201d – Verlaine, \u201cAtthis\u201d – Pound,\u00a0 Song without words.\u00a0\u00a0 1955 R\u00c9<\/p>\n

Symphony no 1 (opus 7)\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cL\u2019homme Arm\u00e9\u201d
\nOverture (Opus 8)\u00a0 \u201cOlynthiac\u201d
\nSuite \u201cThomas Moore\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0(Opus 9)
\nDivertmento for wind quartet, voice and side drum\u00a0 (Opus 10)
\nNomos 1\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cHercules Dux Ferrariae\u201d\u00a0 (1957)\u00a0 8 movements for String Orchestra.
\nNomos 2\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cSophocles\u201d on Theban\u00a0 cycle for Bar., Chorus and Orch. (1957 -\u201965)
\nNomos 4\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Solo piano and Orchestra. (1958)
\nNomos 6\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Triptyque pour\u00a0 Orchestre Symphonique\u00a0 (1960)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lords and the Bards\u201d\u00a0 (Text Robert Farren)
\nSATB,Mixed chorus and Symphony Orch.
\n5 Greek Epigrams (1958)\u00a0 (Agathias,Scholastikos,Leonidas, Anacreon, Teocratas, \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Antiphilos)
\nMixed choir, flute and guitar.
\nRequiem for a soldier (1968)
\nMixed choir, solo Sop.,Ten.,Bar.,\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 and organ
\nRequiem Mass (as above but with further pieces added) (1970)<\/p>\n

\u201cOverture Olynthiac\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0(1957)\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Orch.
\n\u201cThe Banks of Sul\u00e1n\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0(1956)\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Orch.
\n\u201cSeoladh na nGamhna\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0(1959)\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Orch.
\n\u201cIn memoriam Aloys Fleischmann\u201d \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0(1964)\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Bar. and Pianoforte
\nText by H. C. Holderlin
\nSome 25 orchestral arrangments of traditional Irish tunes.
\n120 Chorale \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0arrangments of Irish songs.<\/p>\n

Other works:
\nAlso over 700 arrangments of songs and dance music for traditional group, various lecture series,\u00a0 the most important of these being a series delivered\u00a0 on Radio \u00c9ireann in the early sixties entitled \u201cOur\u00a0 Musical Heritage\u201d and a short series of lectures on Irish music generally delivered in UCC some weeks before he died\u00a0 -, a play called \u201cSpailp\u00edn a R\u00fain\u201d,\u00a0 articles,essays and some songs.\u00a0\u00a0 There is also a body of original Irish melodies compposed by him with the express purpose of letting them drift into the main stream of Irish songs and Melodies – the best know of these being \u201cMn\u00e1 na h\u00c9ireann\u201d (text by \u00d3 Dorin\u00edn).
\nTwo Masses \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cC\u00fail Aodha\u201d \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0(1965) and
\n\u201cGlenstall\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0(1968)
\nThese masses were followed by the Requiem already mentioned.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Se\u00e1n \u00d3 Riada Se\u00e1n \u00d3 Riada was born in Cork on August Ist, 1931, while his father, a sergeant in the Garda S\u00edochana, was stationed in Adare, Co. Limerick. His […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-66","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seanoriada.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/66","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seanoriada.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seanoriada.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seanoriada.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seanoriada.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/seanoriada.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/66\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67,"href":"http:\/\/seanoriada.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/66\/revisions\/67"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seanoriada.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}