Samuel Beckett (1906-89), the Dublin-born playwright, spent much of his life from the 1930s onward in France. It is noted that during WWII when he lived in the small, very charming and picturesque town of Roussilon in Provence, it was a sad time in his life. I wonder if he ever thought of his early years in Ireland with affection. In my experience living abroad I find even in the best of times there is always a sense of longing for your home country. Beckett’s Whisper refers to this and the trace impressions as we leave on a place and that a place leaves on us.
Included on my Europa CD, Beckett’s Whisper is a piece with the original instrumentation of Irish flute, penny whistle, violin, cello, Celtic harp, accordion, piano, and double bass. At the request of Nancy Nourse and Allan Pulker, I arranged this work for flute choir for use as the closing piece for the first Canadian Flute Convention in 2013 at Appleby College, Oakville, Ontario.
– Ron Korb
