Philip O’Kane Presents the Agnes O’Kane Award to John O’Brien
[The following passage is the speech by Philip O’Kane as he presented the Agnes O’Kane Award to John O’Brien at the National Concert Hall during the IAYO Festival of Youth Orchestras]
Ambassadors, Madam Minister, European guests, IAYO members, families of young musicians, music teachers, helpers and friends, I have been asked to say a few words on presenting the annual Agnes O’Kane IAYO Award to John O’Brien, who is present this evening with his wife Kay and family. He and they have helped make hundreds of events like today’s a resounding success.
My words will not be in the style of an encomium, or laudatio, in the high academic manner; I prefer words from the imagination in praise of John, for his enjoyment, in the mind’s inner ear where music lives.
Let me begin by noting the anniversaries. It is the 50th anniversary of the Franco-‐ German Peace Treaty, one of the pillars of the European Project, the second article of which provides “for exchanges between the two countries, of school children, students, young artisans and workers”, and which, by extension, is now a regular occurrence between all the member states of a peaceful Europe.
It is the 40th anniversary of our accession to the European Union, and we hold its Presidency for the next six months. The occasion has brought young musicians from many countries to our National Concert Hall. We thank you for coming.
But for me, at the IAYO Festival this evening, the most significant anniversary is the 250th anniversary of the first Grand Youth Music Tour. John, in a former life, as your own ancestor if-‐you-‐will, you are of course the logistics manager for this tour. Your employer, Sigismund III, Graf von Schrattenbach, Fürsterzbischof von Salzburg, has given you extended leave-‐of-‐absence from your job as his Rittmeister and has asked you to ensure that the reputation of his Court is enhanced by the tour.
So we may imagine you, John, in the wings at a youth concert in 1763 at a modest German Court in the centre of Europe, dressed in a tri-‐corn hat, a frockcoat, a beautifully embroidered waistcoat, silk cravat, silk breeches and stockings, and wearing chisel-‐toed brogues with silver buckles. You are captivated by the music, but you are also attentive to the urgent task, whatever it may be.
John, or Johannes, Du sprichst sehr gut die Kanzeleisprache des Hofes; Johan, Tu parles aussi bien Francais, langue de la culture et de l’Éclairecissement; Agus, a Sheáin, Tá Gaeilge agat freisin, ní ón gcliabhán é, ach ó mhanach sa Mhanaistir Sankt Gallen. You speak English too, but it is not yet a world language. You learn Italian on a later tour. Tour logistics, no problem!
The first Grand Youth Music Tour begins on the 9th of July 1763 by carriage, perhaps on loan from the Gotthard-‐pass postal service, eine Fünfspänner-Jucker-Anspannung, pulled by five horses over unpaved dirt roads, and lasting for three years. You first visit the Courts at Munich, Mannheim, Mainz, Frankfurt, Cologne, Liège, and Brussels, before reaching Paris in November, where your goal is the Chateau de Versailles and the Court of Louis XV. Your charges are frequently ill; it is a test of endurance, but of extraordinary musical brilliance. There are only four in your tour party: your recently promoted colleague, Vizekapellmeister Leopold, his wife, Anna Maria (Pertl), and their only two surviving children, Nannerl aged 12, and Wolfi aged 7. It is the Mozart family, making youth music, for the whole of Europe. Go mba fada buan tú, a Sheáin!
J. Philip O’Kane 18th IAYO Festival, National Concert Hall Sat Feb 9, 2013
