Drowsy Molly | Marjorie Halloran | MusicSpoke

Program Notes

For much of my life, my father played in an Irish folk band, and I grew up with a love of Irish folk music. He would often play my favorite, “Drowsy Maggie” for me on the mandolin, and when I was learning to play guitar, I loved to accompany him. As a young child, my parents would lovingly refer to me as “Molly Brown”, after the “unsinkable” heroine of the Titanic. This often became “Molly Malone” as a nod to my Irish ancestry. Since both Molly and Maggie can be diminutive forms of my first name, it seems fitting to combine my two favorite “name songs” into a fun choral piece that evokes the feeling of stepping into a pub for a trad session— a favorite pastime during my study abroad year in Dublin. Sláinte!

About the Arranger

Marjorie Halloran (b. 1985), originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, is a synesthetic composer, songwriter, and performer. Her choral music blends together smooth and memorable melodic lines, lush harmonies and textures, and the occasional abrupt change in time signature or key, just to keep things interesting. She holds her MFA in composition with an emphasis in songwriting from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, as well as a BA in music theory/composition from the University of California at Davis. She is the co-founder of the VCFA Choral Workshop, a program for graduate students interested in learning choral composition, and has studied composition under Michael Early, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Don DiNicola, Abbie Betinis, and Alice Parker.

An accomplished choral singer in addition to composer, Marjorie has performed with many different ensembles in California, New Jersey, New York, and Texas, where she currently sings with and writes for Chorus Austin and Inversion Ensemble. Her compositional accolades include being the winner of the 2016 WomenSing "Youth Inspiring Youth" choral composition competition, a finalist for the I Kromatika composition competition in 2015, a semi-finalist for the American Prize in Composition (choral division) in 2018, and an American Prize finalist in 2022. Marjorie released her debut pop album, Ready For Anything, in 2015, featuring a variety of songs written during her studies at VCFA, and has released a variety of EPs on her Bandcamp site (marjoriehalloran.bandcamp.com). She currently resides in Austin, TX, while continuing her work with VCFA as the Assistant Director for the MFA in Music Composition program.

Her favorite symphony is Robert Schumann’s 2nd, and her favorite instrument beyond voice is the viola. She loves the color yellow, biodegradable glitter, peanut butter, cocoa with mint, chords in first inversion, The Little Mermaid, and reading alto clef. She has a husband, an orange cat, and an obsession with rainbows, and her favorite Pokémon are Pikachu and Koffing. She has been to 50 states and 6 continents. Once, she camped in Antarctica.

Marjorie's music is available on MusicSpoke, JW Pepper's MyScore, and her website, www.marjoriehalloran.com

This score is not licensed for performance. Please visit MusicSpoke.com to purchase performance copies.

Molly Malone

In Dublin's fair city

Where the girls are so pretty

I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone

As she wheeled her wheelbarrow

Through streets broad and narrow

Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!"

Alive, alive, oh

Alive, alive, oh

Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh"

She was a fishmonger

And sure 'twas no wonder

For so were her father and mother before And they both wheeled their barrows

Through streets broad and narrow

Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!"

Alive, alive, oh

Alive, alive, oh

Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh"

She died of a fever

And no one could save her And that was the end of sweet Molly Malone

But her ghost wheels her barrow

Through streets broad and narrow

Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!"

Alive, alive, oh

Alive, alive, oh

Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!"

Commissioned by Inversion Ensemble: Coda, directed by Trevor Shaw, for their "Raise A Glass" concert, August 2022

Drowsy Molly

for SAB chorus, piano, guitar, fiddle, and bodhrán*

*Guitar, fiddle, and/or bodhrán may be omitted if needed

(ASCAP)