During the period of writing this piece I became highly attuned to the sound of a good door: the creak, slam, whoosh and slow morphologies. I made pilgrimages to places I would not normally make pilgrimages to (toilets in particular) just so I could hear these blissful ignored moans one more time. More often than not the door had not been cared for since my previous visit, and were just singing and creaking away like some diseased and great ignored hinge of life. Other times they had been oiled, fixed, or even destroyed. I suppose one door opens and another door closes. 

I don't particularly care about doors; I do however care about sound, and some doors sound better than others.

The Doors Piece Part A

“So the problem becomes one of tying the knots of relationship: of combining, uniting, bringing together, of selecting the important things and enhancing the differences...” 

No co-ordination between the parts means no identity in the whole. Where are you? Anywhere. Nowhere.”

Ian Nairn, Your England Revisited (1964), Hutchinson & Co.


Written for AES Kvintett as part of Stockholm Chamber Brass Academy Composition Course, Leksand, Sweden, August 2021.

Funding to attend the course graciously provided by RVW Trust.

Duration: approx. 10 minutes – ‘Leksand’ Version

Anywhere - Nowhere Rehearsal AES Kvintett 7 Aug 21 Brass Quintet

Recorded live at Unit 44, Prussia St, Dublin 22 06 22. 

-- 

"YOU ARE YOU

SING FROM YOU 

FED FROM BOTH OUTSIDE AND INSIDE 

FUCK OUTSIDE OPINION AND FEAR" 

JB

A Minor Everything

Part I of The Ma Piece (or a duet with Bea Arthur)

For baritone and organised sound. 

performed by the composer.

The Ma Piece Part I

'A Grain in the Balance was the winning entry for the Seán Ó Riada Composition Competition at the 2018 Cork International Choral Festival. This first performance, given by Chamber Choir Ireland, conducted by Paul Hillier, was recorded on Friday 20 April 2018 in St Finbarre’s Cathedral, Cork as part of the Cork International Choral Festival.’

Text taken from Charles Darwin’s On The Origin of Species:

Man selects only for his own good. Nature only for that of the being which she tends.

As man can produce, what may not natural selection effect?

Silently and insensibly working, whenever and wherever opportunity offers.

What applies to one animal will apply throughout time to all animals.

He thus adapts animals and plants for his own benefit or pleasure.

He may do this methodically or he may do this unconsciously.

A grain in the balance will determine which individual shall live and which shall die.

A Grain In The Balance

"Variety is valid only as a means of attaining similarity. Contrast is everywhere. One has only to take note of it. Similarity is hidden; it must be sought out, and it is found only after the most exhaustive efforts". Stravinksy.

Composed with 95% sounds of the Luc Ferrari archive, 5% sounds of the Donal Sarsfield archive. 

Made in Manchester. 




The Luc Ferrari Piece

Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot unlikely wonders. 

Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Richard II, Act 5, Scene 5.

For Snare drum and organised sound. Performed by Damien Harron, 14 12 12. Leeds College of Music. 

The Snare Piece

L'esprit de l'escalier 2019-2020

Fl/picc, ob, hrn, pno, perc, strings

L'esprit de L'escalier Midi for chamber ensemble

Baritone and organised sound

Commissioned by Distractfold Ensemble - Performed by the composer as part of Distractfold Ensemble present Weston Olencki Part I at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester, 11th December 2019.

"It's important, you see, that you honor the material that you use... You can only do it if you honor the brick and glorify the brick"..

Louis Kahn, Lecture at Pratt Institute (1973)

Glorify The Brick Live 11 12 19

COMPOSER

Liverpool Lime Street Cuttings Open to the Sky Trailer:
https://youtu.be/FixpcFq1FDw 

Off White:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU6_SND8d3o

Glorify the Brick:
https://youtu.be/6yS-GODJxMo

Donalsarsfield

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