''Three Pastels'' is a set of three pieces for piano solo composed in 1941 by
John Ireland
John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian-American actor and film director. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia and raised in New York City, he came to prominence with film audiences for his supporting roles i ...
.
A performance of all three pieces takes about 9 minutes. They are:
# ''A Grecian Lad''
# ''The Boy Bishop''
# ''Puck's Birthday''
A pastel is an artwork made using a colouring medium in the form of a stick which consists of powdered pigment and a binder; the stick too is called a pastel. Pastel drawings are often delicate in tone, which may explain Ireland's choice of title for this set of gentle Impressionism in music, impressionistic pieces.
The title ''A Grecian Lad'' may have been taken from A. E. Housman's poem "Look not in my eyes, for fear", No. XV in his 1896 collection ''A Shropshire Lad''. It refers to the Greek legend of Narcissus (mythology), Narcissus, who fell in love with his own reflection:''
: A Grecian lad, as I hear tell,
: One that many loved in vain,
: Looked into a forest well
: And never looked away again.
: There, when the turf in springtime flowers,
: With downward eye and gazes sad,
: Stands amid the glancing showers
: A jonquil, not a Grecian lad.''
The jonquil is a species of narcissus, ''Narcissus jonquilla''.
In the Middle Ages, it was a widespread custom to appoint a boy bishop, for example from among cathedral choristers, to parody the actual bishop on some particular church feast day.
Puck (mythology), Puck is a mischievous supernatural creature in Celtic folklore. He is perhaps best known from the character Puck (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Puck in Shakespeare's play ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''.
References
Solo piano pieces by John Ireland
1941 compositions
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