And The Way She Might Pluck At You

To the waters…

aving toured Ireland, the UK, Europe, the USA and Asia over the past two decades, Aisling Ennis has established herself as one of Ireland’s finest harpists.

Whether performing with orchestra ensembles, solo or as part of the award-winning trio Affinití, the Wicklow-based harpist has basically been living the dream.

The dream she first created as a child growing up in Tipperary. Singing to cows.

Coming to The Whale on Sunday, April 10th alongside flautist Vourneen Ryan and violist Robin Panter plus special guest soprano Catherine Redding, their show To A Child Dancing In The Wind takes works by Tavener, Debussy and Faure to celebrate the coming together of W.B. Yeats and Paul Verlaine in a Parisian tenement house in February, 1894.

“Our concert on will explore various musical settings of Verlaine’s poetry alongside a stunning song cycle of Yeats’ poetry,” explains Aisling. “Yeats met Verlaine on one of his visits to Paris, and I was fascinated and intrigued by this fact. I think for any music lover, this will be a an opportunity to enjoy some much-loved pieces whilst also discovering some new compositions that reflect on these two incredible people.

“And to be honest, I am super-excited to perform music to real live audiences again. It’s been a long ould two years of pandemic-ness…”

You can find out more about To A Child Dancing In The Wind on April 10th here. In the meantime, Aisling is taking us back to those formative days, and to her musical inspirations through the years…

As a child, I was always always singing. I’d sing to anyone and anything about anything at all. Some of my favourite audiences were the cows in the field behind the cottage in Tipperary where we spent our summers.

They were very receptive to my repertoire of peculiar self-made songs. If you don’t believe me, I dare you to stop and sing a song to some cows next time you pass a field. Cows love a good gig – and they are incredibly tolerant of the not-so-polished ones I delivered in my youth…

Music was fairly constant at home and my mam was delighted at the idea of me playing the harp in a Laura Ashley guna. As soon as she hoodwinked my first harp teacher Aine Ni Dhubhghaill into giving me a few lessons that was that. Hooked.

I wrote one of my first songs at the age of 8 (or thereabouts) after my mam read Oscar Wilde’s The Nightingale and The Rose to me. I cried and cried for the poor nightingale and really the only thing that helped in the end was to create a piece of music especially for that gorgeous little creature.

Even at that age, somehow, music was not only the connection into the world around me but the cure for it too.

Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major
This piece just blew my mind when I first heard it. My ears were completely overwhelmed by what they heard. I had a CD that I would listen to on repeat. Especially the second movement. I couldn’t fathom how a melody could seemingly go on for ever and leave me yearning for more. I wanted to climb inside the second movement and never get out. Climb inside the piano frame, climb inside the cor anglais and be inside that glorious sound forever. I think everyone should sink into this movement like a bath and stay there for a long time. I feel like the whole universe could find solace there.

Mahler’s Symphony No.2: Resurrection
Another piece that transports me back in time is Mahler’s Symphony No.2: Resurrection. I have so many memories of this incredible work. Aaaaah, this piece brings me right back to the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland. Band camp. The best band camp. The best memories.
To be a tiny cog in these enormous symphonic machines is so life-altering in its own way. A part of that communal, artistic endeavour. One of a hundred or so musicians all playing this remarkable, gargantuan piece of music, all moving and thinking and feeling through the same huge tapestry of sound.
The importance of this music, the legacy of this music, that has been performed across the world, affected thousands and thousands and thousands of people over and over again is mind-melting, if you ask me. Listen from the beginning. Stay with it. The fourth movement breaks my heart every time. The ending shatters me every time. Bawling. BAWLING! So many orchestral pieces affect me in this way, but Mahler’s No.2 is very special.

Anne-Marie O’Farrell Embrace
Anne-Marie’s most recent album, and I am in awe of her capacity to transcribe such harmonically dynamic music to the Irish harp repertoire. I adore her piece Airdance but this entire album is beautiful and you’d never be aware of the technical acrobatics involved. Anne-Marie has been such an important role model to fellow harpists and she continues to search out her own path, which I find incredibly inspiring.

Nick Drake Northern Sky
I fell into Nick Drake in my early twenties. I had just met my husband and he couldn’t understand how Nick Drake had escaped me. I love this song for its simplicity and heartfelt wonderment.

Eva Cassidy Somewhere Over The Rainbow
This song brings me back to my first few months living and studying in London in my late teens. Suddenly meeting so many fellow musicians from different places around the world, all equally excited and nervous to study in the big smoke. There was so much learning and growing in those first few months. So much exposure to new things. London was massive and it was full of all these people! There was also that pining for home, a sense of great yearning for Ireland and all things Irish. There was something instantly familiar, comforting and beautiful about her arrangement of this classic. It still hits me in the feels.

Claude Debussy Clair de Lune
My grandad’s favourite tune. Remarkable how famous this piece of music is. How many of us have such strong associations with it and how often we hear it played in many different settings. It has been so interesting to explore various settings of Paul Verlaine’s poetry for our upcoming concert in the Whale on 10th April. Verlaine himself was such an interesting character and his legacy is vast. I have adored nerding up on him.

Roisin Reimagined
This is the CD on in the car at the moment and I find it hard to pick one song so just go listen to it all. My kids are obsessed with Cailin na nUrla Donn and we bop along to that on our way to school every day. This was one of the first things I did in 2021 with the Irish Chamber Orchestra and I am ceaselessly in awe of Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh and all that she brings to her art. ICO are sumptuous in all that they do and to connect and play music with peers in the same room was mind-blowing in 2021 – so, this was a gorgeous project to be involved with.

You can find out more about Aisling & co at The Whale on Sunday, April 10th at 4pm right here.