Recorded on 11/11/13 in St Patrick's Cathedral at Evensong. Sung by the Gentlemen of the choir. Cantor: Eoghan Desmond. Composed April 2006.

Fauxbourdon Nunc Dimittis

Fauxbourdon Magnificat

The Early Dig

My setting of Crux Fidelis for Men's voices, as performed by the gentlemen of St Patrick's Cathedral on June 20th, 2014. There are one or two moments of inaccuracy, but it's a difficult piece that had only about 10 minutes of rehearsal. Bravo and thank you, gents.

Crux Fidelis

Based on the harmonic series, this piece depicts a cheeky little dialogue by two alphorn players. Performed by Cormac O hAodain. 

Across the Alps: Brahms' Abenteuer In Den Alpen

Lost Hope Suite

These pieces were composed between 2010 and 2014, and draw on a vast number of sources, influences and musical styles, mashing them together with little or no respect for composers, movements or tunes. It is rarely done to make any kind of observation or comment on the character of any of the composers referred to over the course of the work, except the composer of this work, and his crude and clumsy sense of humour. In particular, I would like to make it clear that the rather stunted Viola part in the second piece is no commentary on Mr Sebastian Adams (though I have used his name for the material) but rather a commentary on certain comments made about him, of which he is aware and which he takes in his usual good humour. The remaining pieces have even less meaning to them, their titles growing ever more fanciful and disconnected from reality depending on what time of the morning they were completed.

"most memorable... witty whimsy" – Michael Dervan, Irish Times. 

Flights of Fancie and Sundries on divers fubjectf for String Quartet

5. Bántost

An Gleann Mor

Pi can literally sound like anything we want it to sound like. This piece uses the first 49 digits of pi to procedurally generate some music. I assigned the digits 0-9 to the pitch classes of Messiaen's 3rd mode of limited transposition, and gave each digit a note length, from hemi-semi-quaver to dotted breve. The musical value of pi, in other words, is arbitrary. 

What does PI sound like?

"Mother Goose's Melodies" was the winner of the 2015 Sean Ó Riada competition for contemporary choral competition. This is a recording of the second performance, sung by Chamber Choir Ireland under the direction of Paul Hillier the Unitarian Church on Stephen's Green. 

1. A Comic Triptych

i. Cock-a-doodle-doo
My dame has lost her shoe
My master's lost his fiddling stick
And doesn't know what to do.

ii. Doctor Foster 
Went to Gloucester
In a shower of rain. 
He stepped in a puddle 
Right up to his middle
And never went there again.

iii. Goosey, Goosey Gander
Where shall I wander?
Upstairs, downstairs
In my lady's chamber,
There I met an old man
Who would not say his prayers. 
I took him by the left leg
And threw him down the stairs.

2. Bobby Shafto/A sailor went to sea.

Bobby Shafto went to sea
Silver buckles on his knee
He'll come back to marry me
Bonny Bobby Shafto.

Bobby Shafto's bright and fair
Combing out his yellow hair
He will love me evermair
Bonny Bobby Shafto.

Bobby Shafto's dead and gone
I remain and must go on
Carrying his only son
Poor old Bobby Shafto.

(A sailor went to sea
To see what he could see
But all that he could see
Was the bottom of the deep blue sea.)

3. Hey! Diddle-diddle.

Hey! Diddle-diddle
The cat played the fiddle
The cow jumped over the moon. 
The little dog laughed
To see such fun
And the dish ran away with the spoon.

[cadenza]

Mother Goose's Melodies

When I was approached by the Jugendzupforchester Nordrheinwestfalen to write a piece for their tour of Ireland in Autumn 2015, for some reason my mind cast back to a short scherzo I had composed in my second year of college, based on some atonal dictation we had to do for aural class. I tried arranging it for Mandolin Orchestra, and it seemed to work pretty well, so I set about writing some variations for it! In each one, I explore a different kind of texture in the Mandolin Orchestra.

The Vicar's Menagerie –– Theme and Variations for Mandolin Orchestra

My setting of the second half of Rimbaud's "Phrases" was composed for the Jerome Hynes Young Composer's Award. This recording was made at its premiere in the National Concert Hall on 7/10/16 by Gemma Ní Bhriain during her Bernadette Greevy Recital, accompanied by Alfredo Abbati. 

For each of these short, aphoristic poems, I tried to capture the vivid imagery used by Rimbaud in the piano part – the overcast July morning; the rain, falling on flowers; a mystical dancer connecting stars with chains of golden light; a steaming pond; a bell of pink fire; powdered Chinese ink filling the air. Each movement is also suffused with the incense of the opening movement. 


 Une matinée couverte, en Juillet. Un goût de cendres vole dans l'air ; — une odeur de bois suant dans l'âtre, — les fleurs rouies, — le saccage des promenades, — la bruine des canaux par les champs — pourquoi pas déjà les joujoux et l'encens ?

x x x
    J'ai tendu des cordes de clocher à clocher ; des guirlandes de fenêtre à fenêtre ; des chaînes d'or d'étoile à étoile, et je danse.

x x x
   Le haut étang fume continuellement. Quelle sorcière va se dresser sur le couchant blanc ? Quelles violettes frondaisons vont descendre ?

x x x
   Pendant que les fonds publics s'écoulent en fêtes de fraternité, il sonne une cloche de feu rose dans les nuages.

x x x

    Avivant un agréable goût d'encre de Chine, une poudre noire pleut doucement sur ma veillée, — je baisse les feux du lustre, je me jette sur le lit, et tourné du côté de l'ombre je vous vois, mes filles ! mes reines !



Phrases

The Language of Birds was commissioned by Mark Bowyer on behalf of RSCM Ireland for their 2015 awards service in St Mary's Pro-Cathedral on November 14th, and subsequently broadcast on RTÉ 1 on St Cecilia's Day, by the choirs of St Mary's Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast, and St Bartholomew's Church, Dublin. Due to the nature of the commission, I chose lines from Christopher Smart's Jubilate Agno describing music, and the virtues of offering prayer through the medium of singing.

The title is a reference to an ancient Celtic pagan belief that animals – specifically birds – could commune directly with divinity through their birdsong. This idea seems to have been adopted by early Irish Christianity, as is reflected in much of the poetry and prayer which survives from that period.


The Language of Birds

Let Elias rejoice with the dove, which is the innocency of the Lord.
Let Asaph rejoice with the nightingale, the musician of the Lord.
Let Jeduthun rejoice with the woodlark, who is sweet and various.
Let Gideoni rejoice with the goldfinch, who is shrill, and loud, and full withal.
Let Dan rejoice with the blackbird, who praises God with all his heart, and biddeth thee be of good cheer.
Let Benjamin bless, and rejoice, with the redbird, who is soft and soothing. 
Let Sarah rejoice with the redwing, whose harvest is in the frost and snow.

For there is no musick which is not in God's natural key.
For His musick is the work of creation.
For the air is purified by prayer which is sung aloud.
For the VOICE is from the body and the spirit, and is the body and the spirit.
For Christ Jesus hath exalted my voice to His own glory.

Amen.

The Language Of Birds

Contemporary Classical composer from Dublin, Ireland. Contact eoghand14@gmail.com for scores. 

Eoghan_Desmond

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