Band of the Defence Forces School of Music
Mark Armstrong, conductor

Col. Wilhelm Fritz Brase General Mulcahy March (1924)
John F. Larchet arr. W.F. Brase Lament for Youth (1939)
Col. Wilhelm Fritz Brase The Frost is All Over (1940)
Thomas C. Kelly A Wexford Rhapsody (1954)
Hamilton Harty arr. Eric Richards The Fair Day (from An Irish Symphony 1904)
A.J. Potter Finnegan’s Wake (1969)
Col. Fred O’Callaghan Air from Co. Derry (revised 2014)
A.J. Potter The Blackthorn Wattle 
Sammy Nestico The Boys of Wexford (1963)
Gerard Victory  Marche Bizarre (1985)
James Bolger Rollicking Rakes 

In 1922 the Chief of Staff of the Free State’s new army, General Richard Mulcahy, said: “I want to have bands that will dispense music and musical understanding in the highest terms to the people.”  

Mulcahy and his musical adviser John Larchet (director of music at the Abbey Theatre and an influential teacher at both the Royal Irish Academy of Music and University College Dublin) entrusted the development of the bands to the distinguished German musician Colonel Wilhelm Fritz Brase and their first public performance was at the Theatre Royal in October 1923.

The army bands, their conductors and musicians, played a vital role in music in Ireland in the early years of the state and the Defence Forces, along with RTÉ, have been the country’s biggest employer of professional musicians ever since.

Composing the Island: A century of music in Ireland  1916 – 2016 
Sponsored by Bord na Móna and presented by RTÉ and the National Concert Hall as part of RTÉ 1916 and Ireland 2016. 

For full details, visit https://www.nch.ie/Online/Composing-the-Island