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Her Music

THE SCENT OFTHE ROSES

37451

TRANQUILITY 37339

MUSIC SPEAKS LOUDERTHAN WORDS 36695

The Floral Dance/Streets OfLondon/And I Love You SoWhen I'm Sixty-Four/Barbara

Allen/I Know Where I'm GoingShepherds Song/Believe Me IfAll Those Endearing YoungCharms/Scarborough Fair

What Is Life To Me WithoutThee/Bright Eyes/Where 'ErYou Walk/Leaving On A Jet

Plane/Eriskay Love Lilt/It's MeO Lord I Autumn Leaves/All

Through The Night/Where HaveAll The Flowers Gone/Drink To

Me Only With Thine EyesKilling Me Softly With His Song

Music Speaks Louder Than WordsAnnie's Song/Cucuin A ChuaichinOceans Away/Dust In The WindThe Snail/HI Have To Say I Love

You In A Song/Home In TheMeadow/Scorn Not His SimplicityCeol A Phiobaire/Never My Love

Roisin Dubh

You Are The New Day/ThePrayer Of The Badger/The

Rainbow Connection/Child OfThe Woodland/Greenfinch &

Linnet Bird The Secret Of TheRoses/Try To Remember/TheGarden Song/Ye Banks & Braes

As I Walked Forth OneSummer's Day/Chanson PourLes Petits En fan ts/1 Gave My

Love A Cherry

Plaisir D 'Amour/Rainy DayPeople The Clown/The Sun Is

Burning/Too Much MagicPussy Willows Cat Tails

Sliabh Na mBan/A FriendOf Mine/The Wee Cooper

O'Fife/Mon PaysSpinning Wheel

ATTHEROYALFESTIVAL HALL 36490

Morning Has Broken/TapestryA Hebridean Milking SongAmong Silence/Bring Me AShawl From Galway/Bridge

Over Troubled WaterForty-Five Years/Una BhanScarlet Ribbons/Song For A

Winter's Night/When I Need YouLord Of The Dance

Chrysalis A VAILABLE ON RECORD AND TAPE

" • ' • ' - / : ' ' •-'

Clifford Hockingpresents

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Australia — New ZealandFebruary/March 1981

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Mary O'Hara^will sing a selection frf m the following titles and more:-

The UnicornMon PaysDust in the Wind

•HI will walk with my Lo¥eOrd mo BhaidinThe Scent of The RosesThe Rainbow ConnectionThe Garden SongI gave my tove a CherryNa Maori u (Child of the Woodland)The Bonnie Earl o' MorayTry to RememberPrayer of the Badger

tare have W th| Flowery Gone l

u are th^New DayCueuin a ChuaichiinI know where I'rjj goingAh Ehid^g Airgicyihe Silver Whistle)¥ '*\S ' , ' >S%Luibm o Lu % ^,Judas and Irfary

the FauFTroftin'' ^ •-*•

A$I walk out one suYe Ban^s and BraesAlPthr^gh fhe NightPussy pillow Cat TailsJhe Spanish LadyJThe Floral Dance€>h %ar Me, l|>rdfhelistCattleC^ooaGreenfinch and Lipnet

lfAp€ r,'s day

"I am not, I think, a folk-singer as the purists understandit. What I try to do is interpret traditional songs with theskill and respect given to art songs simply by singing themwith all the understanding I possess."

"I still think that folk and traditional songs are among themost beautiful, but I also love Elizabethan lyrics and somemodern poets' verses and prose-poems, which sing to me,so I set them to music."

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MaryOHam

Mary O'Hara does not have much time to herself thesedays. In the short period since emerging from a 12 yearseclusion in an English Benedictine Monastery, she has animpressive list of achievements to her credit. She has addedsix new LPs to the seven she had already recorded beforeher monastic sojourn; she has sung to capacity audiencesin London's Royal Festival and Royal Albert Halls; shehas had her own very successful week at the LondonPalladium and repeated her successes at New York'sCarnegie Hall and in Toronto's Massey Hall. She has hadspecials on British TV and tours of England and Ireland.She has appeared on various chat shows on both sides ofthe Atlantic and in 1978 readers of the Irish Post votedMary Irish Personality of the Year.

Mary accompanies herself on the Celtic harp and loves tosing traditional Gaelic songs of Ireland and Scotland aswell as English folk songs.

"She displays a unique sense of what folksong is about,more I dare say than anyone else in the current folk move-ment. She possesses one of the most haunting voices I'veyet heard," wrote a reviewer in the English Folk Review.

But Mary's songs are not limited to folk as the success ofher recent albums has proved. She is equally at home aloneon the stage with her Celtic harp or with accompanyingmusicians, but she likes simplicity best and tries to avoidbeing swamped on stage in a mass of 'electronic iron-mongery'.

"There is magic and balm for the spirit in her serene artand the old and simple things. It would be good for the

noisy distracted and confused world to pause more oftenand listen to such songs as Mary O'Hara sings." (TheSouthland Times, New Zealand).

There is a calm about Mary's singing that gives peace, butthere is more to it. The late Joyce Grenfell, writing in theLondon Observer Reviewer, stated it more succinctly:"Mary O'Hara's voice has a first day freshness in her sing-ing."

Mary O'Hara was born in Sligo, in the west of Ireland.After boarding school in Dublin she took up playing theharp and at 16 was singing on Irish Radio. Before she was21 she had her own programme on BBC TV and was sing-

Mary, making the news early in her career —

Baron's Profiles of 1956 No. 8 : M \ R V

( ) ! I \ H \y O'Hara is pure Burne-Jones. One hopes that her

hair will never really settle down; that the fey Irishness ofher personality will not be tamed by constant ap-pearances on the television screen. When she plucks ather small Irish harp, and sings some Gaelic lullaby, oneis transported into the blue hills and the soft mist of theIrish countryside. The lilting artistry of her folk songs ismore than beguiling but it does not conceal a strong,maybe wayward personality.

The profile is half peasant, half patrician. It is hoped thatthe young American undergraduate whom she has cap-tivated will not bear this gentle charmer too soon fromour shores.

— from the pages of the London Evening Standard.

ing at the prestigious Edinburgh Festival, which temptedthe reviewer in The Scotsman to write: "The outstandingperformance this year was by Mary O'Hara. Everyonewho saw and heard her assures me that she undoubtedlystole the whole giddy Festival Show."

Mary met and married a young American poet and RhodesScholar at Oxford, Richard Selig and went to live in theUnited States. Their marriage was not destined to lastlong, for within 15 months Richard died. By then Maryhad recorded a number of albums and had appeared in theUnited States, where the folk boom of the sixties was justbeginning.

After a performance at the Phillips Gallery in New York,Paul Hume writing in the Washington Post, claimed that"she raised to a new high level the art of folksinging."

But after her husband's death, the zest had gone out of lifefor Mary. For four years she travelled the globe giving con-certs and appearing on radio and TV. In 1959 she made anextended and highly successful tour of Australia and NewZealand. Critics the world over were unanimous in their

praise, but the more success she had the more persistentlyshe felt the call to the monastic life. Eventually she entereda closed Benedictine monastery in England.

When her health began to give way under the rigours ofmonastic life Mary decided to come out into the worldagain and, more importantly, to play publicly.

In November 1977 her major "comeback" concert at Lon-don's Royal Festival Hall demonstrated to the capacitycrowd that she had successfully renewed her career. Shesang for the first time with accompanying musicians andher repertoire included contemporary songs as well assome of her own compositions. An album of that concertearned her a silver disc for sales in the U.K.

There followed TV specials on British TV, and a concerttour of England and Ireland. She filled London's RoyalAlbert Hall and later the Carnegie Hall in New York. TheNew York Times critic wrote: "Singing traditional Celticmaterial and ballads, accompanying herself with adept anddelicate filigree on the Irish harp, Mary O'Hara ismesmerising."

Mary OHaraLater she took part in the Golden Gala at the LondonPalladium and before starting her own season at thattheatre she was invited to perform for the Queen Mother inthe Royal Variety Show. Then there was "Stars on Sun-day", the "Val Doonican Music Show", "James Galway'sWorld of Music" and many others. Readers of the IrishPost voted her Irish Personality of the Year in 1978.

Where does Mary O'Hara go from here? Following ahighly successful tour of the U.K. last year she is now mak-ing a long overdue return visit to Australia and NewZealand. In 1959 Mary did an eight-week concert tour of

Australia in aid of a religious charity. Critics and au-diences warmed to her natural qualities and the MelbourneHerald critic said "... the one joy in which everyone sharedwas the cool and crystal clear artistry of Mary O'Hara ...If Miss O'Hara can find time to give another, or anothersix, recitals in Melbourne those who got into the hall lastnight, and those who didn't, would be very grateful."

A six-week tour of New Zealand was also very successful."She completely captured an audience which was surpris-ingly large for a solo artist" said the New Zealand Herald."One comes under the spell of Miss O'Hara's artistic in-tegrity. It was a unique experience and a musical joy" saidthe Christchurch Star.

A new album, "The Scent of The Roses" is being releasedthrough Festival Records to co-incide with this tour, as isMary's autobiography also titled "The Scent of TheRoses", and distributed by Thomas Nelson Australia.

Mary OHam's Discography

"SONGS OF ERIN"

"LOVE SONGS OF IRELAND"

"SONGS OF IRELAND"

"MARY O'HARA'S IRELAND"

"MARY O'HARA'S SCOTLAND"

"MARY O'HARA'S MONDAY TUESDAY"Songs for Children

"FOCUS ON MARY O'HARA"

"MARY O'HARA AT THE ROYALFESTIVAL HALL" *

"MARY O'HARA: MUSIC SPEAKS LOUDERTHAN WORDS" *

"MARY O'HARA IN HARMONY" *

"MARY O'HARA: TRANQUILITY" *

"MARY O'HARA: FAREWELL BUTWHENEVER"

"THE SCENT OF THE ROSES" *

* Available in Australia through Festival Records.

Twenty years ago, after hearing Mary give an impromptuperformance at the time of the Edinburgh Festival, SirCompton McKenzie said "This voice has got to be record-ed so everyone can hear how beautiful it is." And so it hasbeen.

Considering her twelve years' absence from the musicworld, thirteen record albums is not a bad effort. Andthere will be more to come. On Eamonn Andrews' TV pro-gramme "This Is Your Life", Joyce Grenfell remarked"Mary's God-given gift was her voice, and what is surelymeant for her, is to sing to as many people as possible."

August 1980

S A F E T Y FILM 5O63

£( Seeing her in concert is to realisewhy writer's wallow in excess overher. Miss O'Hara's presentation isincredibly intense, an almost fright-eningly personal exposure of herlove for and admiration of Irish,Scottish and French tunes, nThe Globe & Mail, Toronto, Canada.

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PRAYER OF THE BADGER

by George Scott-Moncrieff

Lord, I do love the darkness,The hours folk call the night.Where others see but darkness,I know a Lordly light.The light that burns withinEach breathing hopeful heart,And gives all living kinA godliness some part.

Lord, I do love the sunlight,Reflected by the moon.I move by it at midnight,But hide from it at noon.Your daylight dawning blinds meReveals me from above,Ungainly and unkindlyUnworthy of Your love.

Lord, I do love the darkness,The hours folk call the night.Where others see but blackness,I know a Lordly light.I dance between the treesOf this cathedral wood,I scent the gentlest breezeAnd know Your will is good.

,

A LIFEINTHEDAYOFMARYO'HARA

Psalm 139 setsme up for theday. I lie in bedwhen I awakeand reflect on

its words every morning: 'O Lord,You search me and You know me . . .'I used to be a very irregular riser,getting up anytime between nine andnoon. Mainly, I think, as a reaction tothe years I spent in a monastery whereI had to get up at five every morning.But now I've schooled myself to wakeup at eight.

Almost my first act is to go down-stairs and see what the postman haspopped through the letterbox. I sit onthe doormat and go through the post.The guest room is round the cornerand friends who come to stay com-plain that the assorted chuckles andchortles I emit in response to my mailwake them up. Ablutions are fol-lowed religiously by 20 minutescallisthenics in the study - with TerryWogan's patter on Radio-2 for com-pany. I often get ideas for songs fromlistening to Terry's programme.However, when I'm having breakfastor washing up I switch to Radio-3.

Breakfast is unvarying. It's alwaysfresh fruit followed by oatmeal por-ridge with pure bran, wheatgerm andhoney. Until recently, I used to havecream and milk but the herbalistwho's been treating me for sinustrouble discovered that I was allergicto milk products. I rarely drink tea orcoffee, when I do it's usually herbaltea.

I do all my own housework and,having rushed through the chores, Isettle down to some practice. Thisinvolves doing vocal and harp exer-cises, learning new accompaniments,revising old songs and composing newmaterials. I am also sent lots of sheetmusic to browse over. Personally, Iprefer music to be sent on cassettes asI don't have a piano at home.

Around this time my manager,John Coast, calls me on the phone.

I've only been with him a short whilebut already he knows not to disturbme before lla.m. We discuss variousprojects he's got lined up for me -1usually find my practice sessions takeon greater urgency after he's called.

Since coming under the care of aherbalist I've had to regulate my eat-ing habits. So at one o'clock everythingstops for lunch - two slices of whole-meal bread, a lightly boiled egg, fruitjuice and nuts. I make myself havethree meals a day because I don'twant to lose weight. I eat sensibly,mainly health foods.

After lunch I put on jeans andwellies and set out on a walk lastinganything up to two hours. It's prob-ably the most important activity of myday. I live in a cottage on a 1200-acreestate on the Hampshire/Wiltshireborder surrounded by beautiful coun-try, so I can walk for miles throughmeadows, fields and woods - seeingsheep, horses, cows and the odd deer -without coming across another human.

If I've had to to go away recordingduring the day I take my walk atnight, with a lantern. At first peopleon the estate thought I was a poacher,but now they've got used to mynocturnal habits.

On my walk my mind is com-pletely relaxed. Although I relate wellto people it's in my nature to be aloner. I'm enriched by friendships butI'm very content to be by myself.When I left the monastery, after asecond bout of what can best be des-

cribed as nervous and physical ex-haustion, I had no desire to take upmy previous occupation as a profes-sional singer. It was very reluctantlythat I agreed to go back to singing.

The trappings of show businessdon't interest me. I'm content to go toa concert hall or television studio,perform as best I can and then jumpinto 'Marco the Dragon' [her redVolkswagen Polo] and return to mycottage, walks and, in the summer,tennis. I love the grace and movementof tennis. I only wish I could play itail the year round.

I return home from my walk aboutfour o'clock ready to tackle my cor-respondence. I get lots of letters frompeople who've been affected one wayor the other by my music and Ianswer them all. I write the letterssitting on the floor with the writingpad on my knees.

I'm frightfully scatty, forever los-ing things like my precious addressbook or my diary. But I get on to StAnthony [the patron saint of lostproperty] and ask him to get cracking.He's never failed me so far. Only a fewweeks ago I left my handbag in a taxiin London and, within three days, itarrived by first-class post with every-thing intact. Inside was a note, signed4an admirer', taking me to task forbeing careless and informing me thatas a reward my admirer had boughtgoods worth £50 off one of my creditcards.

Early in the evening I look through

Radio Times and TV Times and markthe programmes I want to see. I wouldnever miss The Muppets, FawltyTowers or the Attenborough pro-grammes. But the television is neverswitched on before I sit down to dinnerabout 7p.m. Until I was taken offdairy products I used to be a vege-tarian. But now that I've been putback on meat I have lamb, chicken orbeef with plenty of raw vegetables andfruit to follow.

If there's a recording session or aconcert coming up I will spend alarge part of the evening practising,sometimes even late into the night.The estate stables are next door to mycottage and one of the stable lads tellsme that a couple of the horses aresusceptible to my music - especiallyat night.

I'm rarely in bed before midnight,even though I keep promising myselfan early night. I often write letters inbed, but nearly always I read. At themoment it's Van der Post's biographyof Jung. I tend to re-read; I've re-cently gone back to Tolkien andTagore.

Then before I shut my eyesI reach for my seven vitamin pillsand down them with a drink oflemon and honey. I picked upthe formula in a Ihealth food shop Iin Canada. It's'perfect for a good .night's sleep. |

What the Critics Say"Only a poet could avoid gaucherie in describing, song bysong, Mary O'Haras recital Naivete and worldlywisdom are magically welded into a style that canexpress all that is human and moving and totally unaff-ected by time."

F.C. Campbell in the WASHINGTON EVENING STAR

"Mary O'Hara . . . is simply without peer. She possessesone of the most lovely voices it's ever been my happy lotto listen to . . . gives deathless beauty of everything shesings."

FOLK REVIEW (U.K.)

"Mary O'Hara's voice has a first day freshness in hersinging.

Joyce Grenfell in the OBSERVER REVIEW (U.K.)

"... In her area of entertainment she is without peer andit can only be hoped that she can be brought to incre-asing audiences . . . She alone at this time can conveywhat is most exquisite and delicate in Irish culture."

THE IRISH POST (U.K.)

Mary O'Hara reveals a world of beauty. "GRAMAPHONE (U.K.)

"The texture of her voice is compounded of the samegentle and elusive sweetness as the sound of her harp."

Robert Shelton in the NEW YORK TIMES

"Mary O'Hara gives a sense of timelessness and ageless-ness and the original sense of what song is for. "

Joyce Grenfell

She raised to a new high level the art of folksinging."Paul Hume in the WASHINGTON POST

"Hers is the art that conceals art. "Evening Post, New Zealand

WEXFORD FESTIVAL OF ARTS. " . . . Mary O'Hara smagic undimmed."

Irish Times, Dublin

"An aura of genius attends her, something indefinablewhich goes straight to the heart. . ."

Evening Press, Dublin

"The rest of the evening was entertainment: this wasbeauty".

Charles Acton, IRISH TIMES

"Mary O'Hara . . . is steeped in traditional music. This shetreats artistically to gain the perfection which the ethnicsinger never seems to attain. " Liam Clancy

"Her accompaniments on the harp had the same skill andmusical insight as her singing..."

Christchurch Star, N.Z.

"Mary O'Hara displays a unique sense of what folk-songis about — more I dare say than almost anyone in thecurrent folk movement. She possesses one of the mosthaunting voices I've yet heard . . . always raising thesimp list song to her own high standards."

Folk Review, (England Nov 1975)

"Exquisite purity and delicacy that almost defies descrip-tion."

Evening Star, Washington DC

A programme "Ishould have been sorry to miss"Maurice Wiggan, Sunday Times, London

"My songs are my biography. I sing songs only that I canidentify with. That's why "God-Songs" mean so much tome." Mary O'Hara

"Attractive and charming, she has the rare ability toreally transport her audience. Whether she sings aboutloneliness or love, God and or Fairies, her art is the kindthat takes one into the world of pure poetry."

The Word Magazine

"In her own particular field I know few to equal andnone to excel Mary O'Hara. Charles Acton, Irish Times

"Mary O'Hara has long been established as one of Irelandsfinest musicians. She is a singer and harpist of distinctionand has elevated the best of the greatest Irish tradition toa level of consumate artistry in her performances."Gerrard Victory, Director of Music, RTE — Irish Television

"There is magic and balm for the spirit in her serene artand in the old and simple things, some of them once sad,but now distilled into poetry, of which she sings. It wouldbe good for the noisy distracted and confused world topause more often and listen to such songs as Marysings."

The Southland Times, N.Z.

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Mary OHarain concert

Australia & New Zealand 1981

SYDNEY TOWN HALL 19 FebruaryPERTH CONCERT HALL 23 February

MELBOURNE DALLAS BROOKS HALL 25 FebruaryADELAIDE FESTIVAL THEATRE 27 February

NEWCASTLE CIVIC THEATRE 3 MarchBRISBANE MAYNE HALL 5 March

CANBERRA SCHOOL OF MUSIC 7 March

AUCKLAND TOWN HALL 10 MarchWELLINGTON TOWN HALL 12 March

CHRISTCHURCH JAMES HAY THEATRE 14 March

CLIFFORD HOCKING ENTERPRISES PTY. LTD.303 Collins Street, Melbourne, Vic. 3000 Australia

Telephone: (03) 62 4884Cables: "Hocking Melbourne"

Managing DirectorDirectorTour Co-ordinator &

Publicity Director

Local Representatives:Sydney

Perth

Adelaide

Newcastle

Brisbane

Canberra

New Zealand

Clifford HockingDavid Vigo

Judy Green

Pam Saunderson(02)2123300Frank Smith(09) 384 0560Promcon Corporation(08) 272 9888Alan Yeates(049)21561Paul Sharratt(075) 38 2077Coralie Wood(062)474195Bruce WarwickWellington 85 6382

The MARY O'HARA souvenir programmewas produced and published by

FAN ENTERPRISES22 Upton Road, Prahran, Victoria, 3181, Australia. Phone 51 4181.

Mary O'HaraIhe^cent of therms

The movingautobiography of thisgentle and talentedsinger: her sad lovestory, her retirement toa convent and herreturn to a successfulstage career.

Copies of The Scent ofthe Roses are available atthis concert and from allgood bookshops.