Ruthie’s mom, Rosemary Burg Ahmann, passed away on January 4th of this year. To say that her death was a great loss would be an understatement. The place in our hearts that Rosemary had, will always ache with longing and emptiness.
St. Patrick’s Day was the one day that Rosemary celebrated with an abandonment that truly revealed her DNA roots. Her father may have been a Burg, but her mother was a McNeilly, and, as it always seems, the Irish genes dominate over all genes of other nationalities. The amount of corn beef and cabbage consumed at her home on that day left a wee bit of a cloud of methane over the house.
Ruthie’s family were debating as to whether it was proper to continue Rosemary’s favorite celebration in her absence. Ruthie’s dad made it very clear that no matter what, the celebration would go on as it always had.
I have stated this before in other places, but we all grieve the death of our loved ones in our own particular way. I can wax poetic if need be, but the mode of expression that I use the most has always been music. I knew that it would only be a matter of time before my grieving Rosemary’s death would be expressed in a song. The attached music is something that I have composed in honor of this wonderful Irish/Swede lady, whose humor and down to earth wisdom has been a great joy and inspiration in my life from the time I met Ruthie. It is clear to me that those qualities that have endeared Rosemary to so many people are very apparent in the beautiful woman I married. Ruthie just puts her own spin on those qualities.
The overarching form of this music is ABA form. The A section is composed as an Irish jig. Within the A section there is the dominant melody, with alternate minor motifs sandwich in between. Think of it as this A1,A2,A1,A3,A1.
The music then seques to the B melody. Here the meter changes from 4/4 (four beats to a measure, the quarter note getting one beat) to 3/4 (three beats to a measure, the quarter note getting one beat). The music essentially changes from an Irish jig in quadruple meter to a waltz in triple meter. The tonality changes from the Key of F major to the key of Bb major … if you want to get technical.
The B section consists of 3 melodies like the A section. There is the dominant B melody with two alternate minor B melodies. B1,B2,B1,B3,B1.
There is a musical bridge that then reintroduces 4/4 meter and transitions to the key of F major. There is a recapitulation of all 3 A melodies, though slightly changed from the initial A section. The A melody then ends with a grand, majestic Coda.
Here is the music.
(c) 2018, by Deacon Bob Wagner OFS. All rights reserved.
