“A synder’d vastness” for cello & soundtrack (2020/21)was directly inspired by theoretical projections about what the end of the universe will look like – its final stages and end state. I have often been drawn to stories and ideas about the far future (“Deep Time”) which usually only science fiction novels deal with. But of course there is much in the way of actual scientific thought and projection from cosmologists about the very distant future (up to 100 trillion years hence) when the only things still active will be black holes leaking Hawking Radiation; perhaps, too, some remnants of comets or planets will still be mobile, silently gliding through the void, all energy spent…
Why is this subject of interest? For me it provides both knowledge and perspective, and it frees me artistically from redundant ideas of legacy or posterity; it allows me experiment with my composing, to search out new modes of expression, without feeling that the piece has to fit into a certain box or mould in order to be acceptable or popular or that it will “last” (who can say such a thing with confidence anyway?).

Working with a player such as Matthias Lorenz, for whom this piece was written, is an exciting challenge as his approach to music is dedicated, demanding and always exploratory. When we worked together on “im Geheimen” (for violin, cello & piano, 2015) we first had a period of improvisation together where I would suggest certain ideas – narrative, musical or emotional – and the elole Trio would try and interpret or discover how to obtain what I wanted. Then, when we found something useful, I explored the best way to notate that. With this new work, having had that experience of investigation with Matthias before, I knew that I wanted to look at different ways to produce sound on the cello – extremes of register, of colour and texture, and also look at different kinds of bows, bow substitutes (different pieces of wood), different modes of bowing. All in the service of trying to find a musical corollary to the end of time, the idea of things expiring, being at the end of something; and all in the context of a generally quiet piece of music. I wanted this piece to surprise, but not to shock – this is no horror film score. Relevant words for our exploration were: Granularity, Decay, Dissipation, Interruption, Event.
The soundtrack (I prefer this term to “tape”) is an important element too, of course, and I used various sound sources relating to (for instance) shifting tectonic plates, radiating objects, white noise, rain/water, things that hiss or spray – all transformed and manipulated to create an ideal bed of sound which Matthias interacts with. This has been an area I have become more and more interested in, and have gained facility with, over the past few years.

I was fortunate enough to have conversations (email, Skype) and even a face-to-face meeting with Professor Richard Bower, head of the Astronomy department at Durham University (UK), about the subject of Deep Time, and these conversations gave me a lot of vital information and material to draw upon once I begin composing the work.
Incidentally, concerning the title, “synder” is an old English version of the word cinder.

A synder'd vastness (cello & soundtrack)

"Leide Beag" (2020) is a four-movement work inspired by the celebrated Irish language texts of the Aistriú collection, housed in NUI Galway. The work explores migration from different points of view in texts either originally in Irish or translated into that language. The work was commissioned by Galway 2020 for the Tonnta vocal group (Dublin), led by Robbie Blake. The singers are directed on this premiere recording by Sinead Hayes.
The four movements are:
0:00 "Fáilte Uí Donnchú" (Louis de Paor)
6:36 "Leide beag" (Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill)
13:23 "Gluaiseacht" (Alan Titley)
19:53 "Cuireadh do Mhuire" (Máirtín Ó Direáin)

Leide Beag (vocal ensemble)

My 2012 work for baritone saxophone and Boss RC-300 loopstation - the first ever work notated for this combination - performed by my friend and longtime collaborator Ties Mellema. 

The recording is of a live performance - no overdubs & no pre-records!

The piece uses what I call Evolutionary Looping - rather than the simple vertical stacking one hears a lot from performers using loopstations, this work - inspired by the performances of World Looping Champion Shlomo - functions as much on the horizontal as the vertical, building up layers, breaking them down again and morphing from one thing to another in the process.

motherFUNK! (baritone saxophone & loopstation)

‘The Seventh Seal’ (2020) was inspired by the famous 1957 Ingmar Bergman film of the same name. When approached by double bassist Malachy Robinson with the idea of writing a concerto for cello, double bass and strings I immediately thought of how the two soloists could engage in a series of musical conversations, and having had the Bergman film in mind for some time for a different project I thought of the many two-handed conversations there are in that work – for instance, between the Knight and Death who play chess with each other, between the Knight and a young woman accused of witchcraft, between the knight's squire and a painter depicting gruesome events on the wall of a church, between the actor and his wife about blissfully domestic affairs, etc. Many of these conversations are about existential ideas - the existence of God versus nothingness; what is Death?; the difficulty of faith; the place of love.

I took a number of these conversations as starting points for this single-movement, multi-sectional, free-flowing work that explores the two solo instruments in terms of colour and expressiveness, exploits the tutti string section in inventive ways, and seeks to present the fear, the love, the tenderness, and the inevitability which mark the film so strongly. A Medieval Swedish melody appears near the end, referencing the simplicity of the Knight’s conversation with his wife when he finally reaches home after years of travel – this melody also reflects the time and place the film is set in. After that we have the final Dance of Death.

‘The Seventh Seal’ was commissioned by the Irish Chamber Orchestra with funds from the Arts Council of Ireland. The performers on the recording are cellist Christian Elliott and double bassist Malachy Robinson with the Irish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Thomas Zehetmair.

The Seventh Seal (double concerto for cello, double bass & strings)

'Her charms invited'(2010) was inspired by, and based upon, various types of ornamentation used in sean-nós (traditional Irish) singing, here re-contextualized through use of a contemporary musical language. This is the third in a series of pieces exploring this area, following on from 'Where the moorcocks crow' for alto saxophone and saxophone quartet and 'The linnet sings her note so pleasing' for quartertone bass flute and live electronics. These three pieces are also linked by their use – however distantly or fragmentarily – of an original melody I wrote to the old Irish song 'The mountain streams'.
The performers on the recording are the Vanbrugh Quartet.

Chamber

Her charms invited (string quartet #12)

"Eigenschatten" (2004/2020) in its original version is a work for violin and live recording. The structure of the piece is such that the first half of the work is recorded as it is performed and then, once the halfway point is reached, that recording is played back into the auditorium and new material performed live along with it, creating a duet for one performer. Naturally, this also works with two performers without the live recording and in this case the material of the first half is shared between them before each takes one of the parts in the second half.
The inspiration behind this piece is more abstract than in the other two works on the "Echoes and Shadows" album (Farpoint Recordings, Ireland, 2021) – for the composer it revolves around ideas of solitude, space, and distance.
"Eigenschatten" was commissioned by Catherine Leonard with funds from the Arts Council of Ireland; the duo version was made for the performers on this recording, Dušica Mladenović and Dušan Panajotović.

Eigenschatten (two violins)

2nd movement, "The Crossing", from "Orpheus Down" for bass clarinet and double bass (2021).
     Charon’s oar creaking while he ferries his nervous passenger, occasionally 
     humming to himself.
Performed by Gareth Davis and Dario Calderone.
From the album "Orpheus Down", Farpoint Recordings fp094 (April 2024).

Orpheus Down - II The Crossing (bass clarinet & double bass)

A recent work for soprano, trombone, cello, percussion and piano performed by the Eunoia Quintett with soprano Lena Kiepenheuer at Basel's Gare du Nord in May 2014. 

The Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den (traditional Chinese: 施氏食獅史; pinyin: Shī Shì shí shī shǐ; literally "The Story of Shi Eating Lions") is a 92-character modern poem written in Classical Chinese by Yuen Ren Chao (1892–1982), in which every syllable has the sound shi (in different tones) when read in modern Mandarin Chinese. It is a famous example of constrained writing. The text, although written in Classical Chinese, can be easily comprehended by most educated readers. However, changes in pronunciation over 2,500 years resulted in a large degree of homophony in Classical Chinese, so the poem becomes completely incomprehensible when spoken in Modern Standard Chinese or when written in Romanization.

In my work, each line is set/interpreted/melismaticised before then being heard ‘in summary’ very briefly, almost how it would sound if spoken. The various accents on the written words do not matter in terms of their being sung – the changes in pitch have been ‘built in’ to the music.

« Shī Shì shí shī shǐ »
1. Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī.
2. Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī.
3. Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì.
4. Shì shí, shì Shī Shì shì shì.
5. Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì, shǐ shì shí shī shìshì.
6. Shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shíshì.
7. Shíshì shī, Shì shǐ shì shì shíshì.
8. Shíshì shì, Shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī.
9. Shí shí, shǐ shí shì shí shī shī, shí shí shí shī shī.
10. Shì shì shì shì
« Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den »
1.	In a stone den was a poet called Shi, who was a lion addict, and had resolved to eat ten lions.
2.	He often went to the market to look for lions.
3.	At ten o'clock, ten lions had just arrived at the market.
4.	At that time, Shi had just arrived at the market.
5.	He saw those ten lions, and using his trusty arrows, caused the ten lions to die.
6.	He brought the corpses of the ten lions to the stone den.
7.	The stone den was damp. He asked his servants to wipe it.
8.	After the stone den was wiped, he tried to eat those ten lions.
9.	When he ate, he realized that these ten lions were in fact ten stone lion corpses.
10.	Try to explain this matter.

Shī Shì shí shī shǐ (soprano & ensemble)

"Rossiniana", my 19th string quartet (2019), was written for Luisa MacConville, a good friend who has tirelessly organized the Con Brio Concert Series in Sligo for over 20 years. Rossini is one of her favourite composers and so this mash-up of famous themes was written as a gift for her to mark the 20th anniversary of Con Brio.
Performed here by the Marmen Quartet.

Rossiniana (string quartet #19)

My 15th quartet, inspired by the floods that hit Cork city in early 2014, performed by the Vanbrugh Quartet. The piece casts a cold eye on the life cycle of a flood and attempts to recreate it in music through shifting textures, densities and tessituras. The four sections in the work are Fall, Rise, Breach and Disperse. Alluvio is Latin for "the act of flooding".

Alluvio (string quartet #15)

'Three Songs of Home' for alto flute, viola and harp is an evocative work in five movements, inspired by the work of Irish poet Tony Curtis, specifically five poems from his collection 'Three Songs of Home'. It was written for, and premièred by, Camerata Pacifica on the occasion of its 25th anniversary season.

Three Songs of Home (alto flute, harp & viola)

7th movement, "Entreaty", from "Orpheus Down" for bass clarinet and double bass (2021).
     Orpheus must persuade the ruler of the Underworld through his playing to 
     release Eurydice
Performed by Gareth Davis and Dario Calderone.
From the album "Orpheus Down", Farpoint Recordings fp094 (April 2024).

Orpheus Down - VII Entreaty (bass clarinet & double bass)

10th movement, "To Sing Forever", from "Orpheus Down" for bass clarinet and double bass (2021).
     The Maenads tear Orpheus to pieces but his head continues to sing as it 
     floats off to Lesbos.
Performed by Gareth Davis and Dario Calderone.
From the album "Orpheus Down", Farpoint Recordings fp094 (April 2024).

Orpheus Down - X To Sing Forever (bass clarinet & double bass)

'Therefore I am…' (2012)
This is the only purely instrumental work of my three Tallaght Hospital (Dublin) projects. I spent time observing and interacting with dementia patients and this six-movement work resulted, each one reflecting a different aspect of dealing with dementia.
'The Appointment' tries to capture the tension and anxiety of seeing a doctor when dementia is the issue, and the 2nd movement, 'Face, velvet, red (memory test)', reflects the difficulties of repeating things exactly when suffering from dementia, especially during doctors’ infamous memory tests. Utermohlen was a very good artist who developed dementia – his work, like the third movement ('Utermohlen Variations'), shows his gradual decline. 'Frontotemporal' is one part of the brain affected by dementia, and which can cause obsessive behaviour (hence the repeated tune). 'Slow & sweet (& soft' was how a daughter reminded her father to treat her mother, the latter having developed dementia at a young age, and so it’s a tender piece. The final movement takes the jazz standard 'Autumn leaves' and uses it to reflect the gradual disintegration of a dementia sufferer’s personality as it dissembles through time – although sometimes the sufferer can carry on in their own world quite contentedly, as the saxophonist does here.

The performers are Cathal Roche, saxophone; Ken Rice, violin; Joachim Roewer, viola; and Malachy Robinson, double bass.

'Therefore I am...' 1: 'The Appointment'

My "Sonata for Solo Violin" (2014) is a work in three movements, titled Reeyill, Aire and Jigg, each inspired by a traditional Irish music form (reel, air, jig). The whole lasts around 15 minutes and the movements are fast, slow and fast again, with the triple metre of the final movement balancing the more duple feel of the opening. There is no ‘story’ behind the work, it is rather an exploration of how old forms can be somewhat deconstructed yet still retain something of their character.
The work's central Aire is based on an original melody of my own, written in the style of an old Irish air, the kind of thing Irish sean-nós singers might sing.

"Sonata for Solo Violin" was written for, and is dedicated to Alina Ibragimova.

Sonata for solo violin

'Seascape with high cliffs' (2006) was inspired by a visit I made some years ago to the Cliffs of Moher on the west coast of Ireland. The cliffs are hundreds of feet above the swelling sea, with the Aran islands in the distance, barely visible the day I was there. Seabirds were floating in the strong breeze below me.

This work was commissioned to be the test piece for the 2006 European Brass Band Contest, held that year in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The recording is of the performance by the winning band, the Brass Band Willebroek.

Seascape with high cliffs (brass band)

My sixth quartet (2001) is a single-movement work bound up with ideas of loss and remembrance, particularly in relation to the 9/11 attacks which took place just before I began writing. The piece is dedicated to the memory of my maternal grandmother, who died just after I completed it. 'In fretta, in vento' was written for the Callino Quartet, the performers on this recording.



In fretta, in vento (string quartet #6)

'Bewitched' (2010) is the result of a 10-week period during autumn 2010 when I was Composer-in-Residence to the Stroke Unit of the Adelaide and Meath Hospital in Tallaght, Dublin. My task was to create a substantial work of music which in some way reflects the experience of both suffering and treating stroke, and to that end I was given every support by consultants and staff and allowed significant access to patients and healthcare workers while I was there. The work is a song cycle where the texts are actually segments of conversations I had with patients and healthcare workers, treated as song lyrics.

Part of the residency involved Irish soprano Deirdre Moynihan and members of the Irish Chamber Orchestra coming in to the Unit’s day hospital once a fortnight to give a lunchtime concert of light and popular music. During these visits the musicians also played the latest part of the piece I was writing in order to stimulate interest in the residency’s progress. The very first session brought home to me the fact that the initial audience for my new work would be made up almost exclusively of patients who were not necessarily regular concert-goers and therefore I needed to be able to write in such a way as to connect with whatever musical experience they had. An early visit to a group physiotherapy session provided the key - the session was light and enjoyable for the patients and in the background played a CD of music from the 1950s by artists such as the Rat Pack and Doris Day. I decided that each song I wrote would segue into a Doris Day song, thus not only providing a link to the audience’s own formative musical experiences but also giving me the opportunity to use existing music to comment on my own music; in the end these commentaries are by turns touching, moving and even humorous, but the necessity to communicate with a specific group of people led me to devise a format I would not have otherwise conceived, and it worked even better than I could have hoped.

The performers on this recording are soprano Deirdre Moynihan and members of the Irish Chamber Orchestra.

Bewitched (soprano & string quartet)

My concerto for piano and string orchestra 'Limena' was written in 1998 to a commission from the Irish Chamber Orchestra. I was living in Belgrade at the time of writing - a mostly very happy and peaceful period in my life - and was interested in creating an abstract, flowing piece of music which would explore the gentler qualities of the piano. When writing, I actually composed the complete piano part first and then went back to the beginning to orchestrate it. Since it had been written that way I always felt the piece could work well as a solo in its own right, hence 'Lim'.
    	The Omagh bombing atrocity took place as I was writing, and so the central part of the tripartite structure is requiem-like in feel, more darkly insistent and tolling than the rest.
Although the piece falls into three broad sections, on a small scale the ideas are very fluid, and I was keen to let them inspire each other, let the music write itself, so to speak. The result is that the music has a stream-of-consciousness feel to it, where ideas grow out of each other, and there is rarely anything like a sudden interjection. Only at the end does the music actually become loud, and then only so it can subsequently die away, as if continuing to sound beyond our hearing.
The performer on this recording is Hugh Tinney, for whom the work was written.

Lim (piano solo)

'Línte' (2016) was written as a gift for Greg Ellis, 1st violinist of the Vanbrugh Quartet. Greg announced in 2015 that he would be leaving the Vanbrugh at the end of the 2016/17 season after more than 30 years with the group. In that time the Vanbrugh has premiered nearly a dozen of my works and my relationship with them is one of the longest and most fruitful of my career. 
I wanted to write something which would feature Greg as the quartet’s leader and decided to look at types of unaccompanied choral singing which have a follow-the-leader style, such as Scottish Psalm Singing and Kentucky Lined-Out Hymnody. It was an old American gospel tune called ‘I am a poor pilgrim of sorrow’ which I decided to base my quartet upon – passages of music reflecting the lined-out hymnody style (rhythmically complex, and occasionally somewhat blurred harmonically) alternate with contrasting sections, both texturally (focusing on the leader alone) and musically.

Línte means lines in Irish. The performance on this recording is by the Vanbrugh Quartet.

Línte (string quartet #17)

'Matter' (2013)is a collaboration with Northern Irish poet Leontia Flynn. Leontia and I made a number of visits to Tallaght Hospital, Dublin, where we interviewed and observed Parkinson’s patients. Leontia then wrote a series of texts, which were her responses to what we had seen and heard, and I then contextualized Leontia’s texts musically. 
The four movements are:
1. Voices
2. Connections
3. Movement
4. Days of thin, continuous dreaming

The performers are Ingrid Craigie, narration, with violinist Ken Rice, violist Joachim Rower and double bassist Malachy Robinson.

Matter

Matter (narrator and string trio)

Written in 1999, this piece was inspired by Belgian artist Leon Spilliaert’s painting ‘Moonlit Beach’ (1908). This is a dark, almost abstract work, with a single shining focus, and these characteristics were what I wanted to echo in my work. This version of the piece was made for Catherine Leonard and has been recorded by her on the Riverrun Records CD 'from the Book of Longing' with pianist Hugh Tinney.

Spilliaert's Beach (violin & piano)

'Quattro Stagioni' (2016) is a 21st-century response to the idea behind Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons', as seen through the lens of American artist Cy Twombly's major work from the 1990s, 'Quattro Stagioni'. My 'Quattro Stagioni' consists of four concerto-type movements: each of the four violinists has their own focal movement, where the other three act as the 'ripieno' group. The character of each movement is inspired by one of Twombly's 'Quattro Stagioni' paintings. This work is a meditation on the cyclical nature of life and as such is full of colour, texture and emotion.

The work was commissioned by Music Network and the performers on this recording are Mia Cooper, Katherine Hunka, Ioana Petcu-Colan and Helena Wood.

Quattro Stagioni (violin quartet)

My first quartet was written in 1992 and in a way I view this as my first complete piece, as not only does it have a secure sense of structure and technique supporting it, but it also has a philosophical reason for coming into being. Writing this work moved my music from the abstract plane to a place where I could begin to musically explore the world and my own place in it, and I chose as a theme for the quartet the idea of Redemption as exemplified in the life of Saint Paul. 
The loud, opening chord was in my head for some weeks before I actually began the writing and this and its successors became important motives throughout. There is also something akin to a fate motif, first heard just after the opening viola solo in the first violin and this, too is important in the course of the quartet, returning a number of times altered, but still recognizable.
The title of this piece is related to Paul’s urgent request to his disciple Timothy to visit him “before winter”. Reflection on this request sowed the seeds of my quartet and the more I thought about Paul’s life, aspects of it such as conflict, transformation, solitude and destiny all gave rise to musical ideas which I was then able to mold into a comprehensible single-movement work. The emotional dichotomy between the death Paul knew awaited him (hence the urgency in his request to Timothy), and the hope for what lay beyond that, is reflected in the musical material – at times violent, at times contemplative, but ultimately seeking to reach higher.
In the end, this work is not a depiction of, or even a reflection on the apostle’s life, but that is where the music has its roots.

'Winter’s Edge' was commissioned by the Vanbrugh Quartet with funds from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. The Vanbrugh Quartet recorded the work for CD twice.

Winter's Edge (string quartet #1)

'Fuil is uisce' (2012 - Irish for 'Blood and water') is a song cycle for soprano and guitar, a setting of four poems from the collection 'agus rud eile de' by Louis de Paor, one of the most exciting poets working in the Irish language today.

I was very taken with the drama in de Paor’s poetry, the hints of violence and darkness gnawing at the edges of what might otherwise seem quite traditional subjects – love, loss, a bit of history, elements of Irish cultural life. De Paor’s approach to these themes allows them to be seen afresh so that they feel not just contemporary but current, and consequently my settings of them in a modern musical language seem eminently natural – inherently permissible rather than something only to be done covertly, as it sometimes feels to me with the Irish language. 
Voice with guitar is a far-from-unusual combination, but it is less common in contemporary music. This cycle is quite possibly the first Irish-language sequence for this combination in contemporary music.

I have worked with soprano Deirdre Moynihan regularly in recent years and the songs were her suggestion. We are grateful to Foras na Gaeilge for its kind support of the commission.
The four songs are:
lníon Deichtine (Inion's Daughter)
Alba (Alba)
Sméara Dubha (Blackberries)
Seandálaíocht (Archaeology)

The songs are performed on this recording by soprano Deirdre Moynihan and guitarist Alec O'Leary.

Fuil is uisce

Fuil is uisce (song cycle for soprano & guitar)

This solo for alto saxophone (1995) was inspired by the following verse from the book of John, chapter 15:

'"Woman", he said, "Why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will get him."

This work was written for Northern Irish saxophonist Gerard McChrystal, and was recorded for his Silva Screen album 'Meeting Point'.

I Sleep at Waking (alto saxophone solo)

This work was written in 2017 at the request of the Ortús Festival for Irish flautist Fiona Kelly, who is the soloist on this recording along with violinists Yoan Brakha and Brendan Garde and cellists Aoife Nic Athlaoich and Sinéad O'Halloran. Inspired by the present rise in demagoguery in various places, the soloist’s lines demand a performance of thrilling yet hollow virtuosity.

Art, Beauty, Carbon-Dating, Climate Change, Contraception, Education, Empathy, Entry, Ethnic Cleansing, Evidence, Evolution, Facts, Freedom, Future, Gender Equality, Genocide, Geology, Healthcare, History, Holocaust, Honesty, Hope, Integrity, Justice, Love, Marriage, Mental Health, Opportunity, Past, Privilege, Racism, Reality, Reproductive Rights, Responsibility, Science, Sexuality, Slavery, Truth, Voice, Workplace Equality

dɪˈnʌɪə
noun
1.	A person who denies something, especially someone who refuses to admit the truth of a concept or proposition that is supported by the majority of scientific or historical evidence.
2.	A person who by their words and/or actions, denies something to another person.

Denier (for flute, 2 violins & 2 cellos)

"Up Above the World", my 18th string quartet (2018), was written for the young Presto Quartet from Cork with funds from Cork County Council Arts Office.
The piece sets out to explore various astronomical phenomena in a way that allows the incorporation of a number of modern playing techniques, partly as an introduction to a contemporary musical language for young quartets who might not have played any modern music before.
The five movements are titled as follows:
1. Constellations
2. Pulsar
3.The Perseids
4. Event Horizon
5. 'Oumuamua

Up Above The World (string quartet #18)

'Unbroken white line' (2006)  is a re-working of the first half of my saxophone quartet 'Ghosts' - I felt the music would work very well on strings and it turned out to be the case.
The piece was premiered by the Carducci Quartet at a concert to inaugurate the new CIT Cork School of Music.

Unbroken white line (string quartet #8 - beginning)

"Apparitions II" (2005/19)is an instrumental version of a work originally commissioned by Sligo County Council (Ireland) under the Per Cent for Art scheme, 'Pieces of Elsewhere' (2005), a series of settings for soprano and percussion quartet of 17 Japanese haiku in English translation by Sam Hamill. I subsequently made an instrumental version for viola (or alto flute, or any other similarly-ranged instrument) and percussion quartet, and more recently reworked that for just one percussionist and viola. The performers on this recording are violist Nathan Sherman and percussionist Alex Petcu.

Apparitions II (for viola and percussion)

'Quattro Stagioni' (2017) is a 21st-century response to the idea behind Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons', as seen through the lens of American artist Cy Twombly's major work from the 1990s, 'Quattro Stagioni'. My 'Quattro Stagioni' consists of four concerto-type movements: each of the four violinists has their own focal movement, where the other three act as the 'ripieno' group. The character of each movement is inspired by one of Twombly's 'Quattro Stagioni' paintings. This work is a meditation on the cyclical nature of life and as such is full of colour, texture and emotion.

The work was commissioned by Music Network and the performers on this studio recording are Mia Cooper, Katherine Hunka, Ioana Petcu-Colan and Helena Wood.

Quattro Stagioni [CD]

“Adaptation” is the result of a year-long project I undertook in and around West Clare in 2018/19, investigating possible foreign influences on local culture there over the centuries. This naturally ended up focusing on music and as well as various kinds of research it involved discussions with a number of knowledgeable people from the area including flutist Christy Barry, director of Kilfenora Céilí band John Lynch, Ireland-based French harpist Floriane Blancke, and University of Limerick Irish Dance Lecturer Orflaith NiBhriain, among others.
The extent of the “foreign infiltration” of what we think of as Irish traditional music was quite a revelation and the musical work “Adaptation”, which was the principal outcome of the project, embraces many of these influences as it traces the imaginary journey of a well-known traditional Irish tune, “The Mason’s Apron”, through the centuries and across the globe. Like a set of variations in reverse, the music visits (among others) Gregorian Chant, Medieval Dance, Italian Baroque, German Waltz and even American Ragtime music, all the while moving closer to the traditional tune at the heart of the whole work. All these eras had some influence on the traditional music we have now, from the long-present monastic singing and the importation into Ireland of Italian violins and German accordions, to the more recently arrived British Marching Bands and American ragtime music – the latter itself had an impact on emigrant Irish musicians whose recorded music later filtered back to their home country.
From the outset I had in mind the wonderful and unique duo of pianist Izumi Kimura and guitarist Joe O’Callaghan as the performers for “Adaptation”. I had worked with Izumi previously, most notably on my large-scale (also) partly improvised duo “Possession” (2016) with saxophonist Cathal Roche. Izumi’s duo with Joe, “Sankhara”, provides a different set of options from most duos: not only are both players wonderful improvisers but the range of colours and moods they manage to obtain, especially in a large-scale work such as this, is remarkable.
As with the earlier piece “Possession”, which was based on a number of very different indigenous folk tunes from around the world, “Adaptation” both allows and requires the performers to improvise within and between the written sections, which in this case include a wide variety of musical archetypes from different stages of Western musical history and from different parts of the world. What binds them all together is that each has been imagined anew and built around the tune that finally appears, unadorned, at the end of the work – “The Mason’s Apron”, as played to me by Doolin flutist Christy Barry.
An extra element in the work is the presence of a Prelude and two Interludes which consist of fragments of conversations I had with various interviewees during the project and which illuminate various aspects of the research.
“Adaptation” was part of Clare County Council’s “Gaining Ground” Public Art Programme 2017-2020.

With thanks to:
Izumi and Joe
Christy Barry 
Floriane Blancke
Gianpiero Cavalleri
John Lynch
Orflaith NiBhriain
Pat Murphy

Adaptation

A recording of a concert given by the Ulster Orchestra at the Belfast Festival at Queen's in 2012, conducted by Ian Wilson. The programme consisted of Lutosławski's "Musique Funèbre", Stravinsky's "Pulcinella Suite" and the world premiere of Ian Wilson's fantasy for piano, orchestra, and flute band "Flags and Emblems", with soloist Matthew Schellhorn.
The concert was recorded and broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
00'00" -     "Musique Funèbre"
14'52" -       "Pulcinella Suite"
39'00" -      "Flags and Emblems"

Ulster Orchestra/Wilson/Schellhorn @ Belfast Festival 2012

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Ian Wilson (Belfast, 1964) has composed over 200 works in many different genres which have been performed and broadcast on six continents. He is a member of Aosdána, Ireland’s national association of creative artists, and his music is published by G. Ricordi & Co. Ltd and Universal Edition. 
Visit: www.ianwilson.ie

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