A live performance of my first choral piece performed by Dulciana, conducted by Eoghan Desmond

January

Cyclic Suits is a piece written for string quartet, electronics, vocals, and includes taped snippets of a Thomas Piketty lecture. It is a musical reaction to the work of Visual Artist, Elva Mulchrone, which explores the cyclical nature of repeat patterns in macroeconomic policy. The collaborative project is titled "The Ostinato Effect" and was included in the USB Shuffle Show at the Institut für alles Mögliche in Berlin, March 2016.

(accompanying painting by Mulchrone: "Economic Landscape 2")

Cyclic Suits

A recording of my TCD Composition M. Phil recital "Fire Breathers" which explores the lives and music of forgotten female composer-singers of 17C Italy. Fire Breathers was performed in the National Gallery of Ireland, March 7th 2017, accompanied by David Adams.

This piece is a condensed extract from Caccini's opera - having found out that Ruggiero will leave her, Alcina sets her island aflame. 

Translation:

Scene II:

§- Nunzia:
I do not know which is greater,
My fear or my sorrow
That for you, my queen,
Overshadows my breast and transfixes my
heart.

You hear of a strange event.
Just now, there where
By the cypress fountain
Hang the famous weapons of your fine Sun,
(i.e. Ruggiero)
Amongst those shady plants
I saw Ruggiero, and with him
A man of white-haired appearance Who admonished the young man;
Then he counselled him
To noble warlike exploits.
But listen, (0 marvel!)
I saw in an instant
That severe appearance
Transform into a majestic lady
Who said ‘I am Melissa,
Even though to your eyes there
appeared Atlas. Hither Bradamante desired
That I should come flying to you,
To recall to you alone
Her love, her loyalty.
And that you ought not, submerged in
cheap pleasure,
To scorn her, who gives you her own heart’

§- Alcina:
What did Ruggiero say then?
Alas, that by a thousand proofs
I should know how fickle is human thought! 

§- Lady Messenger:
All happy and smiling,
As appropriate to his mother,
To her he quickly bowed, pays his respects, Then with such lively affection
He asked for news of his Bradamante That it was clear that in that breast
For that charming beauty
Was enclosed in that instant a sea of fire; 
But of you, who even now
Were his very own heart and his life,
That unfaithful one then said nothing else
But that he wanted to make a break with you: : I, being hidden by branches,
And not seen by them, heard it all.
When I saw him absorbed
In wishing to escape
I came here in a moment,
So that you might prevent his departure.

§- Alcina:
Alas, that I should ask him in vain.
Ah, why do I not prevent him
From leaving here by force?
Ah, why into hard tree-bark
Do I not now change his cruel appearance? 
O Furies, who, down in the city of
Pluto
Are always at the disposal of every wish of
mine,
Come to me to my usual abode.
Through you may the terrible waves
Burn in living fire
And from the deep black abyss
May frightful orcas and whales come forth, Such that from these sands
All paths for departure may close.
(To Ruggiero)
Come on, flee now, flee if you can! May the power of my spell bring about
What my prayers and tears attempted in vain.

Francesca Caccini: La Liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina

A recording of my TCD Composition M. Phil recital "Fire Breathers" which explores the lives and music of forgotten female composer-singers of 17C Italy. Fire Breathers was performed in the National Gallery of Ireland, March 7th 2017, accompanied by David Adams.

 Barbara Strozzi published more cantatas than any other seventeenth-century composer. Barbara frequented the Accademia degli Unisoni as a performer and an authority on philosophical debates. One such debate in 1638 questioned whether tears or the singing voice were more powerful in inspiring love. 

Barbara’s commented:

I would not have received the honour of your being present at the last session had I invited you to see me cry, and not to hear me sing.

The affective force of Barbara’s music depends on ‘its ability to imitate or borrow the power of tears.’ Published in 1659 as part of her Opus 7, Lagrime mie utilizes this imitation on the reoccurring refrain “lagrime mie, a che vi trattenete?” (tears of mine, why do you hold back?).

Síobhra Quinlan

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