Excerpt from a live performance by Resurgam and Cór Mhaigh Eo (Mark Duley, director) in St. Patrick's Church, Newport, Co. Mayo, on 24 May 2013. 

This piece is a setting of the Cherubic Hymn in Old Church Slavonic for unaccompanied SATB choir. The text of the Cherubic Hymn comes from the Orthodox Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, an ancient 5th Century Eucharistic rite. 

I’ve tried to make a setting that presents each clause/thought as a kind of ‘infinite moment’ – an opportunity to immerse, to focus… 

Irish chamber choir Resurgam commissioned Cherubikon for its 2013 Slava! project. (resurgam.ie)

More info on the piece here: http://garrettsholdice.ie/cherubikon 

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www.garrettsholdice.ie

Cherubikon (2013)[excerpt]

Excerpt from a live recording of the premiere performance, Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin, June 2013. 

Jonathan Sage is the basset clarinet soloist (www.jonathansage.co.uk). He performs here with Ergodos Musicians, led by Clíodhna Ryan.

This work is about finding a space. And then just being there, just sitting still.

The title refers to a lake in north-east Berlin. More specifically it refers to a house that overlooks that lake, designed by Mies van der Rohe in 1932.

This work is dedicated to my friend Jonathan Sage. And it was written with his particular basset clarinet sound on my ear.

The ghost of Alan Hacker, Jonathan’s teacher, is here too — a memory of Alan performing the 2nd movement of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto as if his life’s meaning was contained within the music.

More info on the piece here: garrettsholdice.ie/am-obersee

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www.garrettsholdice.ie

Am Obersee / concerto for basset clarinet + small orchestra (2013) [excerpt]

This is a demo recording of the first in a suite of three pieces for classical guitar that I composed for Philip Lawson in 2012. 

Philip Lawson is the guitarist here (twitter.com/PLawsonGuitar).

It’s a composer’s cliché that the classical guitar is amongst the hardest instruments to write well for. But clichés are clichés because they’re true. Like the orchestra (also an instrument), you want to forget it’s there and just write your music. But you can’t. The guitar is it’s music and vice versa.

In writing these interludes, I’ve tried to stay as close as possible to my own tactile experience of the instrument. To what Feldman called the ‘reality’ of the sound. And to my affection for the clear-voiced beauty of its timbre.

More info on the piece here: garrettsholdice.ie/three-interludes

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www.garrettsholdice.ie

Three Interludes 1 - Tanka  [demo]

From the album "Winter" by Ficino Ensemble.
https://ergodos.bandcamp.com/album/winter

Winter

From the album "Folk Songs" by Michelle O'Rourke + Ficino Ensemble
https://ergodos.bandcamp.com/album/folk-songs

I Would Be Where I Am Not

'Vedrò Con Mio Diletto', an opera aria by Antonio Vivaldi (1724), arranged by Garrett Sholdice.

Ergodos Musicians

Michelle O’Rourke – voice
Seán Mac Erlaine – saxophone
Kate Ellis – cello

Taken from the Ergodos Musicians release, 'Songs'.

For the 'Songs' project, composers Garrett Sholdice and Benedict Schlepper-Connolly have arranged, re-composed, weaved and stitched material drawn from the songs they love.

Working closely with vocalist Michelle O’Rourke, reed player Seán Mac Erlaine and cellist Kate Ellis, they celebrate the way a melody or a lyric can live in memory, heart and limb— turning, dissolving and re-forming, but never vanishing.

Experiences become transformed and transfigured, while other perspectives and insights come in the form of deeply reflective improvisations.

www.ergodos.ie/shop/songs/

Vedrò Con Mio Diletto (1724) / Antonio Vivaldi / arranged by Garrett Sholdice

This is a recording of the premiere performance of Col Tuo Lume, given by EXAUDI, directed by James Weeks, at "Exposure2014", at the Bishopsgate Institute, London, in October 2014.

Col Tuo Lume means ‘with your light’ in Italian. The sung text is from the first canto of Dante’s Paradiso. The words describe Dante’s entrance into the first sphere of heaven and his first encounter with Beatrice, his guide. The preternatural revelations he experiences are related in ecstatic prose. My piece is also searching for a certain ecstasis, a certain revelation. Through its declamations, repetitions and elisions the music is ever-turning, ever-sifting, ever-trying to soar. The madrigals of Monteverdi and Gesualdo were ringing in my ears somewhat as I composed, particularly the suave fourth book of the former (1603) and the eccentric fifth book of the latter (1611). For me, the declamatory nature of this music often takes on a rather ritualistic atmosphere. It’s something I feel very close to.

The Italian text set to music is taken from the first canto of the Paradiso, the third part of La Divina Commedia by Medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri (c. 1265-1321). 

More info on the piece here: garrettsholdice.ie/col-tuo-lume

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www.garrettsholdice.ie

Col Tuo Lume (2014)

A setting of the first verse of Johann Agricola’s Lutheran hymn, ‘Ich ruf’ zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ’. A desire to compose an aria, a simple song, an expression of one person’s honest desire to be a better human being.

Verleih mir Gnad zu dieser Frist, / Lass mich doch nicht verzagen

Lend me grace in this life / Let me not lose courage.

The atmosphere is rich with associations – the solemn pacing of Javanese gamelan, the ghost of J.S. Bach, the arias of Vivaldi…

Dedicated to my wife, Michelle O’Rourke, who sings the mezzo-soprano part on this recording.

The recording is featured on the Ergodos Musicians album 'I Call to You' (Ergodos Records, ER9, 2013).

Buy the album here: http://www.ergodos.ie/shop/i-call-to-you/

More info on the piece here: http://garrettsholdice.ie/verleih-mir-gnad-zu-dieser-frist

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www.garrettsholdice.ie

Verleih mir Gnad zu dieser Frist

This is the first interlude from 'Recueillement', a chamber opera by Garrett Sholdice based on poetry by Charles Baudelaire. 

In the opera, this music accompanies the projection of a silent film by Krishan Hukam (http://vimeo.com/user8487642/videos).

Kate Ellis is the cellist here (www.kateelliscello.com).

This is a live recording taken from the Ergodos-produced first performances of Two Operas at Project Arts Centre, Dublin, August 2012.

Personnel for the first performances of 'Recueillement':

Michelle O’Rourke, voice; Silja Thomsen, dance and choreography; Krishan Hukam, film; Ergodos Muscians (Kate Ellis, cello; Isabelle O’Connell, piano); Garrett Sholdice, direction; Aedín Cosgrave, lighting; Valerie Francis, sound, Benedict Schlepper-Connolly, producer.

More info on the opera here: garrettsholdice.ie/recueillement-2

More info on the suites of concert music extracted from the opera here: garrettsholdice.ie/two-arias-and-a-recitative

And here: garrettsholdice.ie/two-dances-and-two-interludes

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www.garrettsholdice.ie


First Interlude from 'Recueillement'

This is the second interlude from 'Recueillement', a chamber opera by Garrett Sholdice based on poetry by Charles Baudelaire.

In the opera, this music accompanies the projection of a silent film by Krishan Hukam (vimeo.com/user8487642/videos).

Isabelle O'Connell is the pianist here (www.isabelleoconnell.com).

This is a live recording taken from the Ergodos-produced first performances of Two Operas at Project Arts Centre, Dublin, August 2012.

Personnel for the first performances of 'Recueillement':

Michelle O’Rourke, voice; Silja Thomsen, dance and choreography; Krishan Hukam, film; Ergodos Muscians (Kate Ellis, cello; Isabelle O’Connell, piano); Garrett Sholdice, direction; Aedín Cosgrave, lighting; Valerie Francis, sound, Benedict Schlepper-Connolly, producer.

More info on the opera here: garrettsholdice.ie/recueillement-2

More info on the suites of concert music extracted from the opera here: garrettsholdice.ie/two-arias-and-a-recitative

And here: garrettsholdice.ie/two-dances-and-two-interludes

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www.garrettsholdice.ie


Second Interlude from 'Recueillement'

Garrett Sholdice (b. 1983) is an Irish composer based in Dublin. His music has been described as possessing an “exquisite delicacy” (The Irish Times). His work has been recorded by Ficino Ensemble, pianist Michael McHale, Maya Homburger & Barry Guy duo, Ergodos Musicians, vocalist Michelle O’Rourke, and Trio Scordatura, amongst others. Notable commissions include works for the Irish Chamber Orchestra, basset clarinetist Jonathan Sage and the Keats Quartet, Crash Ensemble, and cellist Kate Ellis and pianist Isabelle O’Connell. Sholdice is a co-director of Ergodos, a Dublin-based record label and audio production company co- founded with composer Benedict Schlepper-Connolly in 2006. He has lectured in composition, orchestration, and score analysis at several Irish third level institutions, and at summer courses in Ireland and abroad.

Verleih mir Gnad zu dieser Frist

Garrett Sholdice

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