Composed for Longleash.

Tallboy takes a beautiful song called Baltimore, by Gabriel Kahane, as its starting point. A tallboy can be a number of things, including a piece of furniture, a bomb, a very tall glass of beer, a bicycle, or one of those giant wind socks that car dealers use. It’s also referenced in Baltimore. Take your pick.

Slågedalen is where Salve Håkedal lives; Salve made the Hardanger d’Amore, a new kind of fiddle that I play. It’s a beautiful place, in a remote part of southern Norway, and Salve’s family has lived there for generations. A tall rock face towers over the door to his workshop (which his grandfather built), and in winter it is covered in ice, which slowly melts in the spring. I made this tune, originally on the d’Amore, after returning from a visit to Salve and his wife Inger.

We think of J.S. Bach as an efficient composer—every note is essential, carefully placed as part of a deep architectural plan. And yet... over and over in his music we encounter these self indulgent, repetitive passages of bariolage, where the fiddler (or cellist) wanks away with impressive flying string crossings (think of the E-major Partita for solo violin, or the G-major Prelude for solo cello), or even in his keyboard music we find these extended sequential passages where the pianist just spins out a pattern over and over again for no apparent reason (think of the Presto in the C-minor Prelude of Book I of the Well Tempered Klavier). What’s the point? Of course there are lots of answers, though most usually depend on some circular notion that Bach is, well, great, so, well, naturally these passages are part of some grand plan. For me, however, the point is pretty simple: these passages are just so damn fun to play! After all the hard-earned intricate passage-work that precedes them, it’s just so pleasurable to let the arm do its thing—you get in a kind of zone, as you might with minimalist music. And it’s really quite depressing to imagine Bach’s music without these passages. All that said, Bariolage is a similarly self-indulgent homage to Bach and the bariolage, and I hope it is fun.

I’m imagining a machine that is sad, in mourning after the loss of... something, or someone. It keens, or tries to, in spite of its inner mechanisms which just want to keep doing what they were designed to do. Or perhaps it is a machine whose purpose it is to keen, another in the line of robots that we make to replace us and our jobs—there are professional keeners, after all, so why not?

Recorded by Andrés Villalta

For more information and score, visit: https://manyarrowsmusic.com/works/Trio/index.html

Trio—Dan Trueman // Longleash

Orchestral settings of three traditional sean nós songs, as part of the Iomas Project (http://www.iarla.com/press/iomas-%7C-intuition-iarla-o-lionaird-with-the-rte-concert-orchestra/).

I was thrilled to be invited by Iarla to set these songs, the first of which is in Irish, and tells of the ancient landscape around one of Ireland's most well known lakes. The second two are macaronic, in both Irish and English. "Siúl a Rún" is a well known old song that Iarla learned from his great Aunt Elizabeth Cronin, one of the great figures of sean nós singing, and is told from the point of view of a young woman trying to bid her lover farewell as he leaves for war (perhaps). The last song, which translates as "I am Weary of Lying Alone," is a fitting end to the sequence, though is perhaps not just about mourning. 

These songs, which are performed continuously as a complete set -- a mini oratorio of sorts -- were premiered at the National Concert Hall in Dublin by Iarla and the RTE Concert Orchestra in September 2013. Read more: an article in the Irish Times (http://www.iarla.com/press/iomas-%7C-intuition-iarla-o-lionaird-with-the-rte-concert-orchestra/), and a review (http://tradreview.com/2013/10/30/review-of-iarla-o-lionairds-iomasintuition-with-the-national-concert-orchestra/). 

Three Sean-Nós Songs, featuring Iarla Ó Lionáird (live)

Keening Machine

Bariolage

Slågedalen

Tallboy

for solo piano and laptop ensemble, composed for Kathy Supové and Sideband/PLOrk. pre-release edit.

Four Squared for Ligeti

this is the very first track of hardanger fiddle music i ever heard. still blows my mind. not available anywhere, as far as i can tell!

Nordfjorden--Anund Roheim

live recording of the premiere of Marbles, for the Crash Ensemble. March 2015.

Marbles

Táim Cortha ó Bleith im' Aonar im' Luí (I Am Weary of Lying Alone)

Síul a Rún

”Delphica Gaedhlica” is a macaronic setting of the third of the Prophetiae Sibyllarum, and is inspired in part by Orlando di Lassus’s wonderful set of motets. The setting is primarily in Irish, using a translation by Iarla Ó Lionáird made for this piece, though parts of the Latin and English versions also find their way into the piece.

Non tarde veniet, tacita sed mente tenendum
Hoc opus. hoc memori semper qui corde reponet, Huius pertentant cur gaudia magna prophetae Eximii, qui virginea conceptus ab alvo Prodibit,sine contactu maris. omnia vincit
Hoc naturae opera: at fecit, qui cuncta gubernat.

He shall not come slowly (but this work must be held with quiet thought), he who will ever store this in a mindful heart, why his prophets may announce great joys of this
exalted one, who shall come forth conceived from the virginal womb without taint of man. This conquers all
the works of nature: yet he has done this who governs all things.
—Translation from the Latin by Peter Bergquist

Ni mall a thiocfaidh sé ach is i gciún mhacnaimh gur coir an saothar seo a chaomhnú. An té a choinneoidh go deo é seo ina chroi intinne Árdoigh a shaoithibh lúcháir an té is airde;
A thiocfaidh chugainn ó bhroinn na maighdean gan
locht ár gcinne. Sáraionn sé seo oibreacha uile dúlra an domha.in, ach fós féin is eisean a riallaionn thar an uile ni a rinne é.
—Translation by Iarla Ó Lionáird

Delphica Gaedhlica

Loch Lein

A little tune to welcome two awesome little brothers to this mad world!

dan trueman

Pinned to spotlight

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