This is the News

On Sunday May 20th my latest orchestral piece Changing Rates of Change performed by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland will be broadcast on RTÉ Lyric Fm’s Nova presented by Bernard Clarke. This show will also feature orchestral pieces by Enda Bates and RTÉ’s composer in residence Linda Buckley. This show can be listened to here

It was an absolutely wonderful experience to work with the National Symphony Orchestra and everyone involved with the recording process. I learned a lot from this session and I am very grateful to Lyric FM and IMRO for affording me the opportunity to be part of this process.

Additionally, I’ve been busily writing my PhD thesis which is now almost complete. It has been wonderful to solidify all of the thoughts I have been having over the past three years on music and aesthetics and I believe that it makes for extremely interesting reading.

The abstract of this thesis can be read below:

‘A proposition could logically be put forth that the progress of art has for centuries been primarily focused on the concept of the new and the novel. Indeed, much of what is critically and, as a result popularly revered in art is done so because of its apparent innovation. This seeming quest for novelty reached a palpable climax in the second half of the Twentieth-Century with the onset of Modernism, where (particularly in music) each new creation was subject to re-inventing the wheel in some way. This process which was greatly aided by advancements in technology, arguably reached its crux with the development of Spectral composition whose ramifications and influence is still dominating ‘modernist’ compositional thought today. 

            However, as artistic and philosophical thought appear to be moving into a new era (one which is neither Modernist nor Postmodernist), should the quest for novelty, which has been the driving force behind artistic advancement, be our primary concern as composers today?

            Using Harold Bloom’s The Anxiety of Influence[1]as a Springboard, this PhD Thesis seeks to re-evaluate the questions that one believes composers should be asking themselves as we move into the second decade of the Twenty-First-Century. By examining one’s own work as a composer and contextualising it in a wider cultural and artistic sphere, one hopes to demonstrate that by engaging with concepts pertaining to found and original material, narrative and rupture and elite and vernacular values, that a fresh concept of novelty in music may be approached which is concerned not with innovation, but intervention.’

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[1] BLOOM, Harold, The Anxiety of Influence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973).

In other news, my latest piece Ping Cutlets a children’s companion to Joe Cutler’s Cultural Olympiad commission Ping! has begun it’s rehearsal process with two groups of school children in Lambeth and Elephant and Castle in London and is going incredibly well. This will culminate in a performance by these groups in the South Bank Centre, London over the weekend of 14th/15th July 2012.

Finally, I’ve encountered a lot of incredibly interesting music over the past few weeks, three highlights for me have been Gerald Barry’s Importance of Being Earnest which I believe to be one of the most incredible things I’ve heard/seen in a long time. Gerald is certainly proving (in my opinion at least) to be the most important opera composer since Mozart. The second stand out piece was Pass the Spoon by David Fennessy and David Shrigley which was a darkly humorous piece of wonder. Brilliantly executed by all involved it was like nothing I had heretofore experienced. Finally, I was so utterly delighted by Birmingham Conservatoire’s contribution to the Cultural Olympiad. This day featured The Voyage by Michael Wolters which was a stunningly beautiful take on the constructed nature of nationality in a mobile world, the dynamics of emigration and immigration and departure and return. Joe Cutler’s Ping! a witty and beautiful intervention on the game of Table Tennis, Howard Skempton’s Five Rings Tripples a quirky take on the English Bell Ringing tradition as well as a fascinating and illuminating introduction to Richard Causton’s Twenty-Seven Heavens.

It is so wonderful to see so much interesting music being created at the moment that is sitting outside the avenues of what is generally considered ‘New Music’… Long may it continue…  

 

Some Updates

It’s been an incredibly busy time and I’ve had little opportunity to update this site. But now that things have quietened down for a few days here is what has been going on.

The majority of February and March has been spent working on my RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra Commission. I’m really happy with this piece and think it will come across well with the orchestra. The piece offers an alternative existence for the Faith No More song Jizzlobber, which I was incredibly interested in due to its highly original form and its complete lack of structural anxiety. I have tried to encapsulate these things in my orchestral piece and have also tried to maintain some of the sonic gestures of the song particularly the Sludge Metal feel. A big thank you to Linda Buckley, Joe Cutler and Howard Skempton for guiding me through this piece and offering many useful thoughts and criticisms. I’m very much looking forward to working on it with Gavin Maloney and the NSO at the end of April.

March saw the world premiere performance of my large ensemble piece White Paintings performed by Toy Sound Circus and Dan Watson. I was delighted with the performance of this piece and was impressed with the clarity of delivery by Dan and the players which is exactly what was required. They performed expertly on a piece that had absolutely now safety net and allowed for now margin of error. So a big thank you to all involved.

Later on in March I had the absolute pleasure of being involved in Birmingham Conservatoire’s Frontiers + Heiner Goebbels festival. This was an incredibly brilliant festival and a huge pay off for all who worked incredibly hard in its preparation. I had the privilege of picking Heiner up from the airport and introducing him to the city and the conservatoire. I was also fortunate enough to have a private tutorial with him where we discussed many polemical topics and a lot of what he had to say resonated strongly with my own work and beliefs. (We did however disagree on one major issue!), but it was fantastic to have an open and frank discussion with someone of this stature. It was brilliant to have Heiner around for the majority of the week and to hear his valuable insights into music, art, theatre and aesthetics. In addition, throughout the week we were treated to many fine performances including the brilliant Decibel performing student works on Monday night, two fantastic student major projects on Tuesday, some improvisation projects between the composition department and the Jazz department as well as a theatre workshop on Wednesday and a superb concert of music by Heiner Goebbels, Michael Wolters and Ryan Latimer performed by the Thallein Ensemble on Friday. Special mention must be made however, for Thursday night’s Decibel concert featuring Goebbels’ Red Run. This concert was for me the highlight of the festival, featuring works by Ed Bennett, Paul Norman, Damien Harron, Howard Skempton, Joe Cutler and myself. I was absolutely thrilled with their performance of my piece I See Now Why People Hide, which they premiered last year. It was hard to believe that they could surpass their performance of it last year, but they did. The piece really came alive and it was riddled with energy from beginning to end. These guys are a really hot band and it would be a delight to be afforded the opportunity to hear them perform more often.

For now I am focused on writing a little companion piece to Joe Cutler’s Cultural Olympiad commission Ping! and I’m finally writing up the final draft to my PhD Thesis to go with my composition portfolio. This process will no doubt contribute to my receding hairline and my diet of pizza… I have some very interesting commissions lined up for after the summer which I am very much looking forward to getting stuck into, but for now its head in books and word processors…

I’ll finish these inane ramblings by suggesting to keep an eye on the Tunes section of this site as I shall be uploading some new music very very soon.

 

 

Recent Activity

I’ve just given this site a bit of an overhaul; including, revising my bio, adding some new music  including a ‘sampler’, adding some new spoken papers and adding some recent press I have received. I hope you find it thought provoking and informative. In other news, I’m currently putting the finishing touches to my RTÉ NSO orchestral piece and will be writing a short essay on a piece of music that I’m very fond of. Watch this space!

End of BCMG/SAM Residency February 2012

A little more than a week ago my BCMG/SAM apprentice composer in residence came to and end culminating in a fantastic concert with BCMG conducted by Clement Power with Susan Narucki as soloist. More on this concert anon.

I am greatly privileged to have been afforded the opportunity to partake in this residency and I am grateful to all at Sound and Music (particularly Nicole Rochman) and all at BCMG (particularly Stephen and Jackie Newbould) for their welcoming help and support during my residency. I had many wonderful insights into the group and have learnt a lot over the past year in addition to writing two pieces for BCMG of which I am incredibly proud of. So a big thank you to all the players and staff involved during my residency.

The final concert on February 3 in the CBSO Centre was for me a huge success. Not only was there a spectacular programme (including two of my favourite composers), but each piece was played fantastically by BCMG and I was particularly happy with the performance of my own Findetotenlieder which was performed expertly with the required energy, style, wit and sensitivity by Susan, Clement and the ensemble. Despite my crippling nerves I managed to survive and enjoy the concert and my heart warmed with all of the kind words I received from both friends and strangers alike on the night and over the subsequent days.

A spectrum of published reviews of BCMG’s Musicians Wrestle Everywhere concert on February 3 2012, can be seen below.

It just remains for me to wish my successor Joanna Lee the best of luck with her residency. I hope she gets as much out of it as I did!

The Guardian

Musical Criticism

The Telegraph

Journal of Music

Birmingham Post

To read a little article about Clement Power the conductor of the BCMG concert click here

other articles surrounding the piece can be read below

Journal of Music

Birmingham Post

Irreversible Featured on Estonian radio

My large ensemble piece Irreversible, selected as part of the Irish submission for the 2011 UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers was featured on Klassika Raadio, Estonia in Late January. Although I missed the broadcast a link to the site can be found here

Forthcoming Events

Friday 3 February 2012 @ 19h 30

The formidable BCMG perform the World Premiere of Findetotenlieder conducted by Clement Power with Susan Narucki as soloist.

This is the culmination of my thoroughly enjoyable year long residency with the group as Sound and Music Apprentice Composer and sets texts taken from Gabriel Orozco’s Obit to music inspired by Someone Great by LCD Soundsystem.

I will also be involved in a pre-concert talk at 18h 30 with BCMG artistic Director Stephen Newbould.

This concert also features works by Judith Weir, Gerald Barry and Gérard Grisey.

Full concert details available here

Article about me in the Journal of Music here

Interview with the Contemporary Music Centre here

 

Monday 12 March 2012 @ 19h 30

The exciting new Birmingham based group Toy Sound Circus conducted by Dan Watson give the World Premiere of White Paintings, a piece inspired by the late work of Willem de Kooning encountered on a recent trip to the Museum of Modern art in New York.

this concert also features works by Harrison Birtwistle, Sally Watson, Benjamin Graves and Nicholas Stuart.

Full concert details available here 

 

Thursday 22 March 2012 @ 19h 30

Frequent collaborators & Friends the electrifying Decibel perform I See Now Why People Hide inspired by If You’re Lonely by Martin Creed.

This concert is part of the Frontiers + Heiner Goebbels Festival in Birmingham and will feature works by Heiner Goebbels, Ed Bennett and other Birmingham Based composers.

Full concert Details here

Hear a recording of I See Now Why People Hide here 

 

Hope to see you at some or all of these events!

The Last Year

The end of the first week of the New Year seems as good a time as any to review the previous one. Not only does it serve as a good Janus point but the 1-7 of January 2012 can be seen as the microstructure to the entirety of 2011′s macro. Much has happened and even more has changed over the past 12 months. Despite a number of sizeable tumultuous life changes the work has been good and I have an awful lot to be thankful for.

For the entirety of 2011 I was BCMG/SAM Apprentice Composer in Residence which was one of the more remarkable experiences of my life and afford me many, many notable opportunities that I otherwise would not have received, but more on this anon. January saw the premiere performance of Stabat Mater which in February traveled to Stockholm in Sweden, affording me to opportunity to visit this beautiful city and meet some wonderful people. This piece really meant a lot to me and it was humbling to have such brilliant performances of it several times by Hannah Davey, Jack McNeill, Paul Norman and Sebastiano Dessanay.

In March I had a number of performances including Tout va bien by the Birmingham Conservatoire Wind Orchestra conducted by David Purser which was a great learning experience. Additionally, my first BCMG commission Rückstände was performed by the fantastic Julian Warburton, one of the finest musicians I have worked with and a great way to start my residency with the group.

In April I travelled to Dublin for the premiere of Basso Continuo by the wonderfully exuberant Crash Ensemble conducted by Gavin Maloney. This was a very fine performance indeed and a wonderfully programmed concert, one of the best I had attended all year.  Also in April I see Now Why People Hide was performed in Birmingham by Decibel at Laurence Crane’s 50th Birthday concert. Again, this was a fantastic performance by an extraordinary group of musicians and a truly memorable concert for all in attendance.

In May my piece Das Lied von Anderen was selected for the Dublin Literary New Music Trail in celebration of Dublin’s designation as a UNESCO city of Literature and it was an absolute honour to have been selected. Additionally I met with David Lang for the first time as part of my BCMG/SAM residency. David is such a fantastic composer and one of the most insightful people I have encountered. This was a brilliant first meeting and so influential on my subsequent path as a composer.

June saw my piece Irreversible represent Ireland at the UNESCO International rostrum of composers in Vienna, this piece was subsequently broadcast on national radio in Ireland and in Serbia. The same month saw the premiere of my piece 40 Chromogenic Colour Prints in London performed beautifully by Hannah Davey and Paul Norman who subsequently gave a marvellous performance of it in the Royal Festival Hall in November. This was my first piece based on the work of Gabriel Orozco, who has become an influential figure on my practice as an artist.

July was largely spent working on my large piece for BCMG but also saw a performance of Ursatz by Ciaran Crilly at the Hilltown New Music Festival in Ireland (which sadly I could not attend). In addition my piece Basso Continuo was selected as part of the national submission for ISCM World New Music Days 2012, in Belgium.

A large part of the month of August was spent at the Dartington International Summer School where I had the absolute privilege of working with Gerald Barry and Richard Baker, one of the most fortunate experiences I have had to date and one which really made me reflect on my work as a composer. Furthermore my piece Lullaby (For Howard Skempton) was premiered in the Great Hall at Dartington. Additionally, August saw my piece Basso Continuo being that month’s feature at the CMC.

In September I had one of the most brilliant experiences of my life which came about through my BCMG/SAM residency. I travelled to New York City to work with my mentor David Lang. It had been my first time in NYC and was such an incredible opportunity to work at length with David as well as experience everything the city has to offer. Moreover, it was a brilliant chance to catch up with some very dear friends whom I had not seen in a number of years.  I will treasure this trip till my dying days…

October saw me completing my BCMG commission Findetotenlieder, probably my most extensive work to date based on the work Obit by Gabriel Orozco. This piece was workshoped in November by BCMG conducted by Clement Power with Susan Narucki as soloist and was truly a breathtaking experience. I was completely enamoured by the musicianship by all involved and it afforded me the opportunity to make any necessary changes before the premiere in February 2012.

As the year came to an end in December, Paul Norman performed expertly in the premiere of Au Milieu d’ un demi. I was also awarded one of two RTE Lyric FM/IMRO composition bursaries enabling me to write an orchestral piece for the RTE National Symphony Orchestra, before travelling home to Dublin for the Christmas season. 2011 concluded in the most fittingly chaotic way possible by performing with the experimental rock group The Nippons on the 30 December.

I have much to be thankful for in 2011. As well as having many, many beautiful performances by fantastically talented and gifted musicians, I have had the confidence to grow as a composer enabled by the wonderful support of my PhD supervisors Joe Cutler and Howard Skempton. Moreover, I have been able to travel to places and meet some extremely influential people which has been facilitated by both the Composition Department and the Research Department at the Birmingham Conservatoire. Finally, through my year long residency as BCMG/SAM apprentice composer in residence I have had many opportunities that I otherwise could have only dreamed of; including attending many informative rehearsals, meeting numerous notable composers, conductors and musicians, travelling to New York to work with one of my most respected composers, David Lang in addition to being afforded the opportunity to write what I consider to be my most cherished piece, Findetotenlieder. For this and more I am eternally grateful to Sound and Music and BCMG for selecting me for the position for this past year.

2012 seems already to be an extremely busy year. I am currently finishing a chamber orchestra piece entitled White Paintings for an exciting new group in Birmingham called Toy Sound Circus to be premiered in March. February sees the world premiere performance of Findetotenlieder by BCMG conducted by Clement Power with Susan Narucki as soloist. Additionally the first number of months will be taken up writing my orchestral piece for the RTE National Symphony Orchestra. This is on top of completing my PhD at Birmingham Conservatoire which I plan to submit in July.

It’s going to be a busy and interesting year, but I look forward to and embrace its challenges and all that it has to offer…