Vocal Music
O Mistress Mine (1950)
Baritone and Piano. Text William Shakespeare
A Cradle Song (1950)
Soprano and Piano. Text. W.B. Yeats
Ná Déan Gáire [Do not Laugh] (1953)
Baritone and piano. Text: Séamus Ó Neill. Fp 26 November 1954; Tomás Ó Súilleabháin (baritone), Seóirse Bodley (piano); Trinity College Dublin
Paidir I [Prayer I] (1953)
Baritone and piano. Text: Seán Ó Ríordáin. Fp 26 November 1954; Tomás Ó Súilleabháin (baritone), Seóirse Bodley (piano); Trinity College Dublin
Paidir II [Prayer II]: Prayer for a Child in an Air Raid (1953)
Baritone and piano. Text: Séamus Ó Neill. Fp 26 November 1954; Tomás Ó Súilleabháin (baritone), Seóirse Bodley (piano); Trinity College Dublin
Do Bhádhasa Uair [The Lament of a Bald Man for his Departed Hair] (1953)
Baritone and piano. Text: Anon (trans. Tomás Ó Súilleabháin). Fp 26 November 1954; Tomás Ó Súilleabháin (baritone), Seóirse Bodley (piano); Trinity College Dublin
Stróll [Stroll] (1953)
Baritone and piano. Text Liam S. Gógan. Fp 26 November 1954; Tomás Ó Súilleabháin (baritone), Seóirse Bodley (piano); Trinity College Dublin
Cré [Earth] (1953)
Baritone and piano. Text. Anon. Fp 26 November 1954; Tomás Ó Súilleabháin (baritone), Seóirse Bodley (piano); Trinity College Dublin
Deire Fomhair [October] (1953)
Baritone and piano. Text. Séamus Ó Néill. Fp 26 November 1954; Tomás Ó Súilleabháin (baritone), Seóirse Bodley (piano); Trinity College Dublin
The Fairies (1953)
Baritone and piano. Text. William Allingham. Fp 26 November 1954; Tomás Ó Súilleabháin (baritone), Seóirse Bodley (piano); Trinity College Dublin
A Drinking Song (1953)
Baritone and piano. Text. W.B. Yeats. Fp Tomás Ó Súilleabháin (baritone), Seóirse Bodley (piano) exact date unknown.
Never to have Lived is Best (1965)
Soprano and orchestra. Text W.B. Yeats. Fp 11 June 1965; (i) Veronica Dunne (soprano), Radio Telefīs Éireann Symphony Orchestra, Tibor Paul (cond.); St Francis Xavier Hall, Dublin. (ii) Bodley Horizons Concert, National Concert Hall Dublin, 13 January 2009, National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Colman Pearce.
Ariel’s Songs (1969)
Soprano and piano. Text William Shakespeare. Fp 7 January 1979; Marni Nixon (soprano), John McCabe (piano); Examination Hall, Trinity College Dublin. Recording: Sylvia O’Brien (soprano) and Seóirse Bodley (piano), Hugh Lane Gallery 8 May 2011.
Meditations on Lines from Patrick Kavanagh (1971)
Contralto and orchestra. Text Patrick Kavanagh. Fp 30 June 1972; Bernadette Greevy (contralto), Radio Telefīs Éireann Symphony Orchestra, Colman Pearce (cond.); St Francis Xavier Hall, Dublin
Ceathrúintí Mháire Ní Ógáin [Máire Ní Ogáin’s Quatrains (1973)
Soprano and orchestra. Text Máire Mhac an tSaoi. Fp 7 June 1974; Minnie Clancy (soprano), Radio Telefīs Éireann Symphony Orchestra, Seóirse Bodley (cond.); St Francis Xavier Hall, Dublin
A Girl (1978)
Mezzo-soprano and piano. Text Brendan Kennelly. Fp 17 October 1978; Bernadette Greevy (mezzo-soprano), John O’Conor (piano); National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
Transitions (1978)
Two speakers, piano and prepared piano. Text Brendan Kennelly. Cantata for radio adapted from A Girl. Fp (broadcast) 19 October 1978; Bernadette Greevy (mezzo-soprano), Máire O’Neill (speaker), Barry McGovern (speaker), John O’Conor (piano), Seóirse Bodley (prepared piano); Radio Telefīs Éireann Radio
The Banshee (1983)
SATB soli, electronics. Text Seóirse Bodley. Fp 25 April 1983; Electric Phoenix Sonorities Festival, Whitla Hall, Queen’s University, Belfast
A Passionate Love (1985)
Mezzo-soprano or baritone and piano. Text Seóirse Bodley. Fp 5 May 1985; Aylish Kerrigan (mezzo-soprano), Seóirse Bodley (piano); Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin
Canal Bank Walk (1986)
Mezzo-soprano or contralto and piano. Version of Movement IV from Meditations on Lines from Patrick Kavanagh. Text Patrick Kavanagh. Fp 5 July 1986; Aylish Kerrigan (mezzo-soprano) and Seóirse Bodley (piano), National Concert Hall, Dublin
The Naked Flame (1987)
Mezzo-soprano or baritone and piano. Text Micheal O’Siadhail. Fp 15 November 1988; Bernadette Greevy (mezzo-soprano), Mićeal O’Rourke (piano); National Concert Hall, Dublin. Pub. A Hazardous Melody of Being: Seóirse Bodley’s Song Cycles on the Poems of. Micheal O’Siadhail ed. Lorraine Byrne Bodley (Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2008), 1–59. Recording: Sylvia O’Brien (soprano) and Seoirse Bodley (piano), 75th birthday Concert
Carta Irlandesa (1988)
Mezzo-soprano or baritone and piano. Text Antonio González-Guerrero. Fp 4 September 1988; Aylish Kerrigan (mezzo-soprano), Seóirse Bodley (piano); St John’s Cathedral, Sligo
By the Margins of the Great Deep (1995)
Medium voice and piano. Text George William Russell (AE). Fp 14 May 1995; Aylish Kerrigan (mezzo-soprano), Seóirse Bodley (piano); University of Bochum, Germany
Fraw Musica (1996)
Mezzo-soprano and piano. Text Martin Luther and Johann Walter. Arrangement of Movements II and VIII from Fraw Musica. Fp: Hauskonzert Aylish Kerrigan (mezzo-soprano), Seóirse Bodley (piano)
Pax Bellumque (1997)
Sopranoi, flute, clarinet, violin and piano. Text Wilfred Owen and Thomas MacGreevy. Fp 2 May 1997; Concorde (Tine Verbeke (soprano), Madeleine Staunton (flute), Paul Roe (clarinet), Alan Smale (violin), Jane O’Leary (piano); John Field Room, National Concert Hall, Dublin
Look to this Day! (1997)
Voice and piano. Text. Anon [Sanskrit]. Fp. Private performance, 21 December 1997; Aylish Kerrigan (mezzo-soprano), Seóirse Bodley (piano), Stuttgart, Germany
Earlsfort Suite (2000)
Voice and orchestra. Text Micheal O’Siadhail. Fp 17 September 2000; Bernadette Greevy (contralto), Radio Telefís Éireann Concert Orchestra, Proinnsías Ó Duinn (cond.); National Concert Hall, Dublin
After Great Pain (2002)
Mezzo soprano and piano. Text Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. Fp 11 September 2002; Aylish Kerrigan (mezzo-soprano), Gabriele Schinnerling (piano); Landesbank, Königstrasse, Stuttgart, Germany
Wandrers Nachtlied [Wayfarer’s Night Song] (2003)
Mezzo-soprano and piano. Text Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Fp 6 May 2003; Aylish Kerrigan (mezzo-soprano), Seóirse Bodley (piano); Goethe Institut, Dublin. Pub. A Community of the Imagination. Seóirse Bodley’s Goethe Settings ed. Lorraine Byrne Bodley (Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2004), 80–84
Mignon und der Harfner [Mignon and the Harper] (2004)
Soprano, Baritone and piano. Text Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Fp 27 March 2004; Kathleen Tynan (soprano), Sam McElroy (baritone), Dearbhla Collins (piano); Maynooth University. Pub. Goethe: A Musical Poet, Musical Catalyst ed. Lorraine Byrne Bodley (Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2004), 294–345 and in A Community of the Imagination. Seóirse Bodley’s Goethe Settings ed. Lorraine Byrne Bodley (Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2004), 1–44
Zeiten des Jahres [The Seasons] (2004)
Voice and piano. Text Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Fp 25 November 2004; Linda Lee (soprano), John Feeley (guitar), The Abbey Theatre, Dublin. Pub. Goethe: A Musical Poet, Musical Catalyst ed. Lorraine Byrne Bodley (Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2004), 360–64
Squall (2006)
Soprano and piano. Text: Micheal O’Siadhail. Fp 20 April 2008; Sylvia O’Brien (soprano), Seóirse Bodley (piano); Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin. Pub. Musics of Belonging: The Poetry of Micheal O’Siadhail ed. Marc Caball and David F. Ford (Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2007), 111–15
Earlsfort Suite (2000)
[Version for mezzo-soprano (or baritone) and piano]. Text Micheal O’Siadhail. Fp 20 April 2008; Sylvia O’Brien (soprano), Seóirse Bodley (piano), Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin. Pub. Goethe: A Hazardous Melod of Being: Seóirse Bodley’s Song Cycles on the Poems of Micheal O’Siadhail ed. Lorraine Byrne Bodley (Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2008), 61–78
The Hiding Places of Love (2011)
Mezzo-soprano and piano. Text: Seamus Heaney. Fp 8 May 2011; Sylvia O’Brien (soprano), Seóirse Bodley (piano), Hugh Lane Gallery Dublin.
Remember (28 July 2011)
Mezzo soprano or baritone and piano. Commissioned by the National Concert Hall in Memory of Bernadette Greevy. Text: Christina Rossetti, Fp. Gavin Ring (baritone) and (Dearbhla Collins) piano. 21 November 2011. National Concert Hall Dublin
Gretchen (2012)
Soprano, mezzo-soprano, chamber choir and piano. Text Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Fp 20 April 2012; Sylvia O’Brien (soprano), Imelda Drumm (mezzo-soprano), Seóirse Bodley (piano), Members of the Mornington Singers cond. Orla Flanagan, Maynooth University. The performance was the composer’s last public performance as pianist and accompanist. Pub. A Community of the Imagination. Seóirse Bodley’s Goethe Settings ed. Lorraine Byrne Bodley (Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2004), 45–80
Vermächtnis (2014) Soprano and piano. Text Goethe. Fp 18 June 2018, RIAM
Reservoir Voices (2017)
Soprano, mezzo-soprano, and piano. Text Brendan Kennelly. Fp ? June 2018; Sylvia O’Brien (soprano), Imelda Drumm (mezzo-soprano), Dearbhla Brosnan (piano), Organ Room. Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin.