Dossier 2 - Letters from Arnold Bax

24 items; Manuscript

Letters from Arnold Bax (1883-1953), 155 Fellows Road, London, and Grosvenor Hotel, Chester, to Fr. Michael O’Shea OFM Cap., President, Father Mathew Hall, Cork. In 1929 the Feis Maitiú Corcaigh invited Bax, a well-known composer and poet, to become an adjudicator marking the beginning of a 24-year friendship with the prestigious local music festival. Most of the correspondence relates to arrangements for the Cork Feis and other matters of musical interest. The file includes fifteen original items in Bax’s hand. With contemporary manuscript and later typescript copies of Bax’s letters. The file also includes a typescript appreciation of Arnold Bax possibly written by Fr. O’Shea. It reads ‘The way he [Bax] came to Cork was simple enough. I attribute his coming to the initiative of Frau Fleischmann in the meeting of the Feis Maitiú Committee that was considering adjudicators for the year 1929. I remember at the time that it was mentioned that Bax had rather a Celtic strain in his compositions and the he would like to come’. Also includes a newspaper cutting of a letter from Bax to the 'Daily Telegraph' referring to a performance by a choir at the Catholic Cathedral in Cork. In Irish and English.

The digital extract above is from a letter (from 1933) written by Bax to Fr. O’Shea extant in this file. It reads:
‘Do let me know any news, fun or rumours that are going around when you have time to write. I like the story I just heard. De Valera (visiting a national school, and wishing to make himself pleasant to one of the children). “How old do you think I am?”. The child: “Forty-four”.
De Valera: “Now that’s a very [good] guess. Why do you think that is my age?
The child: “Well, my brother is twenty-two, and he is only half mad”.

For biographical information on Arnold (1883-1953) see http://arnoldbax.com/