Irish Composers

Started by Lethevich, January 31, 2010, 05:31:03 AM

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aligreto

Composing the Island:





Cross posting from the "Listening Thread" I just wanted to list this set here for reference.


QuoteThis double CD is being issued as a legacy of Composing the Island: A century of music in Ireland 1916-2016. The set features live performances drawn from 28 live concerts. Owing to practical constraints, it is inevitable that the selection of recordings represents only a small proportion of the breadth of music showcased during the festival itself. The intention has been to create an audio sampler of Composing the Island.


The track listing for this 2 CD set is as follows:

Norman Hay: from The Wind Among The Reeds
Hamilton Harty: The Two Houses
Ina Boyle: from Symphony No. 1
Frederick May: from Quartet in C minor
John Larchet: Lament for Youth
Brian Boydell: from Oboe Quintet 
Joan Trimble: Phantasy Trio
Aloys Fleischmann: Na Trí Captaení Loinge
Seán Ó Riada: from Hercules Dux Ferrariae
Gerard Victory: Prelude & Toccata
T.C. Kelly: The Mother
Seóirse Bodley: from String Quartet No. 1
Raymond Deane: Embers

John Kinsella: Guitar Fantasy
Gerald Barry: Sur les Pointes [Organ]
Rhona Clarke: Purple Dust 
Jane O'Leary: Forgotten Worlds 
Stephen Gardner: from Trane 
John Buckley: from Guitar Sonata No. 2
Donnacha Dennehy: Mad, Avid, Sad.
John Gibson: Codhladh Sámh
Irene Buckley: Only such ice could be so fair.
Deirdre Gribbin: from Invitation to a journey 
Benedict Schiepper-Connolly: The Old Ways.
Andrew Hamilton: c 



As a sampler it is very good, giving a wide range of different types of music for consideration.


vandermolen

Quote from: vandermolen on September 20, 2015, 12:59:47 AM
Just discovered an interesting composer - Brian Boydell (1917-2000):
His 'In Memoriam Mahatma Gandhi' (1948) is a powerful, tonal, craggy, searching and eloquent work - it is on You Tube if you want to sample it. The Gandhi work reminded me in places of Braga Santos ('Elegy for Vianna da Motta').
The other works sound equally impressive. I liked the old Marco Polo label as I made so many interesting discoveries through it (Sauguet, Braga Santos, Kinsella, G. Devreese, etcetc) and it is nice to discover a new composer (with an inexpensive CD available) on this fine and long gone CD label.
[asin]B00000465O[/asin]
PS I couldn't find it on You Tube when I looked just now but I did hear it on there last week.
100th Anniversary of Boydell's birth in 2017. Am commemorating it by listening to the fine Marco Polo CD.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

aligreto

Quote from: vandermolen on August 03, 2017, 05:21:34 AM
100th Anniversary of Boydell's birth in 2017. Am commemorating it by listening to the fine Marco Polo CD.

That is a fine CD and I am delighted that you enjoy it.
He was a remarkable man; a real Renaissance man.

vandermolen

#83
Quote from: aligreto on August 03, 2017, 06:05:36 AM
That is a fine CD and I am delighted that you enjoy it.
He was a remarkable man; a real Renaissance man.
I like every work on that CD. He studied with Vaughan Williams. He does seem like a remarkable man - I was looking at some of the newspaper obituary notices. Here is one from The Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/nov/17/guardianobituaries1

And from the Daily Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1374191/Brian-Boydell.html
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

aligreto

Quote from: vandermolen on August 03, 2017, 10:48:33 PM
I like every work on that CD. He studied with Vaughan Williams. He does seem like a remarkable man - I was looking at some of the newspaper obituary notices. Here is one from The Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/nov/17/guardianobituaries1

And from the Daily Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1374191/Brian-Boydell.html

Yes, he is well worth investigating as a person. Although I never knew him Boydell was a relative of a neighbour of mine. After he died I attended an event in Trinity College here in Dublin [where he was Professor of Music]. They were selling off a lot of Boydell's stuff, papers etc. I bought some very small things, nothing of major importance. He was a towering figure in Irish musical circles at one time.

If you ever saw a close up of him and wondered why one of his ears is disfigured this was caused by one of his scientific experiments which went wrong. That was the kind of person he was.




vandermolen

Quote from: aligreto on August 04, 2017, 08:48:36 AM
Yes, he is well worth investigating as a person. Although I never knew him Boydell was a relative of a neighbour of mine. After he died I attended an event in Trinity College here in Dublin [where he was Professor of Music]. They were selling off a lot of Boydell's stuff, papers etc. I bought some very small things, nothing of major importance. He was a towering figure in Irish musical circles at one time.

If you ever saw a close up of him and wondered why one of his ears is disfigured this was caused by one of his scientific experiments which went wrong. That was the kind of person he was.



How extraordinary!
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

aligreto


aligreto

Kevin Volans:


Cross posts from the Listening Thread and amalgamating here for reference.





Not a native born but another adopted son, Kevin Volans was born in South Africa in 1949 but became an Irish citizen in 1994.







Trio Concerto: An exciting and, for me, challenging work that sounded unique which is a good thing. The musical language is somewhat stark and bleak but always engaging.
Symphony: Daar kom die Alibama: This work has a very interesting soundscape comprising interesting and intriguing orchestral sonorities and textures. There are some very good [and, for me, challenging] musical ideas in there. I also like the understated tone of the work.
Concerto for Piano and Winds: This is an intriguing work. There is no ostentatious piano bravura and the piano blends very well with the wind ensemble. This delivers a very interesting, atmospheric and cohesive sonic world. The understated tone is very attractive and appealing to me. This was a first listen and the experience was a very engaging and positive one.


This is a very fine CD which contains very interesting modern works that are definitely worth investigating. Volans has a voice of his own and this comes with a warm recommendation.



Other than Wiki here is another link that may be of interest.....


http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/composer/long-bio/Kevin-Volans


Oates

Dutton have just released a CD of Ina Boyle's music, which otherwise is pretty unrepresented.

Overture for orchestra (1933-34)
Concerto for violin and orchestra (1932-33 rev. 1935)
Symphony No. 1 "Glencree" (In the Wicklow Hills) (1924-27)
Wildgeese: Sketch for small orchestra (1942)
Psalm for cello and orchestra (1927 rev. 1928)
A Sea Poem: Theme, variations and finale for orchestra (1919)

Apparently Boyle has been compared to Moeran, so I am intrigued by this.

https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CDLX7352

Dutton describes the CD as follows:

"This programme of music by Irish composer Ina Boyle (1889-1967), a one-time student of Vaughan Williams, collates several of her major orchestral works. The rhapsodic Violin Concerto of 1935 is in three continuous movements, and both conductor Ronald Corp and soloist Benjamin Baker interpret the music with sympathetic attention to detail, maintaining its natural ebb and flow. Boyle wrote three symphonies, and this disc presents the long overdue recording of the First Symphony, subtitled Glencree (In the Wicklow Hills), which dates from 1924-27. The young cellist Nadège Rochat gives a powerful reading of the Psalm for cello and orchestra, written in 1927, while four short but captivating orchestral pieces complete the programme – which reveals Ina Boyle as a composer of originality and invention."

aligreto

Quote from: Oates on April 17, 2018, 04:57:07 AM
Dutton have just released a CD of Ina Boyle's music, which otherwise is pretty unrepresented.

Overture for orchestra (1933-34)
Concerto for violin and orchestra (1932-33 rev. 1935)
Symphony No. 1 "Glencree" (In the Wicklow Hills) (1924-27)
Wildgeese: Sketch for small orchestra (1942)
Psalm for cello and orchestra (1927 rev. 1928)
A Sea Poem: Theme, variations and finale for orchestra (1919)

Apparently Boyle has been compared to Moeran, so I am intrigued by this.

https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CDLX7352

Dutton describes the CD as follows:

"This programme of music by Irish composer Ina Boyle (1889-1967), a one-time student of Vaughan Williams, collates several of her major orchestral works. The rhapsodic Violin Concerto of 1935 is in three continuous movements, and both conductor Ronald Corp and soloist Benjamin Baker interpret the music with sympathetic attention to detail, maintaining its natural ebb and flow. Boyle wrote three symphonies, and this disc presents the long overdue recording of the First Symphony, subtitled Glencree (In the Wicklow Hills), which dates from 1924-27. The young cellist Nadège Rochat gives a powerful reading of the Psalm for cello and orchestra, written in 1927, while four short but captivating orchestral pieces complete the programme – which reveals Ina Boyle as a composer of originality and invention."


Thank you for posting that.

Sergeant Rock

Quote from: vandermolen on August 03, 2017, 10:48:33 PM
I like every work on that CD. He studied with Vaughan Williams.

And he was a friend of my favorite American poet, John Berryman, who mentioned him in his poem "Friendless" (the first I ever heard of Boydell):

Friendless in Clare, except Brian Boydell
a Dubliner with no hair
an expressive tenor speaking voice
who introduced me to the music of Peter Warlock

who had just knocked himself off, fearing the return of
his other personality, Philip Heseltine.
Brian used to play The Curlew with the lights out,
voice of a lost soul moving.


Sarge
the phone rings and somebody says,
"hey, they made a movie about
Mahler, you ought to go see it.
he was as f*cked-up as you are."
                               --Charles Bukowski, "Mahler"

vandermolen

The Ina Boyle CD is a fine discovery - definitely in the more pastoral VW (her teacher) / Moeran mould. I've enjoyed every work on the CD.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

aligreto

Quote from: vandermolen on April 17, 2018, 10:45:19 AM
The Ina Boyle CD is a fine discovery - definitely in the more pastoral VW (her teacher) / Moeran mould. I've enjoyed every work on the CD.

Thank you for the endorsement. It is on my List.

vandermolen

#93
Quote from: aligreto on April 17, 2018, 12:19:46 PM
Thank you for the endorsement. It is on my List.

The Violin Concerto, in memory of her mother, is really quite beautiful and definitely in the VW mould.

Symphony 1 'Glencree' (In the Wicklow Hills) from 1924-27 would appeal to admirers of Moeran.

There is an underlying sadness to much of the music, which I find rather endearing.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

aligreto

Quote from: vandermolen on April 18, 2018, 01:26:50 AM
The Violin Concerto, in memory of her mother, is really quite beautiful and definitely in the VW mould.

Symphony 1 'Glencree' (In the Wicklow Hills) from 1924-27 would appeal to admirers of Moeran.

There is an underlying sadness to much of the music, which I find rather endearing.

Not too far from where I live actually and have spent a lot of happy times there so that will definitely be something of interest.

vandermolen

Quote from: aligreto on April 19, 2018, 08:01:02 AM
Not too far from where I live actually and have spent a lot of happy times there so that will definitely be something of interest.

How nice - I suspect that it is a very beautiful location. The CD is thoroughly enjoyable in all respects.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

André

Posting for no other reason than having this thread up in « show new replies to your posts ».

I wasn't aware there was an Irish Composers thread - although I guess I should have known  ::).

Thank Aligreto for the hint !

aligreto

My pleasure André. There is no reason really why you should have known about this thread.

I really should contribute more to this thread myself. I have rather neglected it. Perhaps I should make it one of my upcoming New Year's Resolutions to do so.

aligreto

On the Nature of Electricity & Acoustics:


   



This is a sampler, if you like, of electro-acoustic and electronic music making in Ireland at the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty first centuries. One may not like all of the music but one certainly has to admire the innovation and musical ideas as well as the various types of musical language portrayed. It is a very interesting compendium.



Roger Doyle: Baby Grand - This is a wonderfully energetic and vibrant work [essentially for keyboard] with a variety of tones and which is an interesting and engaging work.
Educution [aka Tóirse Ó Riordáin]: Again With The Hose - This is a short but a very engaging electronic work which, at its centre, has a very steady underlying rhythmic pulse.
Deep Burial [duo Brennan/Howard]: GlueBagLung - An electronic work which would not be out of place in a hip-hop or psychedelia rave!
Ian Wilson: Devotional 3 - This is a really wonderful, haunting work which features a solo viola ? over an electronic backdrop.
Brian Ó hUiginn: Left Handed March, 3rd movement - This is an amazing work which takes the old Irish uilleann piping traditional music on to a different level and dimension.
Sunken Foal [Dunk Murphy]: Colloidal Glass - A most interesting work which features distorted voice over a wonderful background of electronic strings.
Richard Evans: Grindelwald's Wedding - I like this one. It has something of a haunting element to it.
Spectac [Paul Morrin]: Centurion - This is another fine electronic composition.
Linda Buckley: Error Message - The best way that I can describe this fine work is by a combination of both the adjectives astral and ethereal. It is quite appealing.
Donnacha Dennehy: Misterman - This is a really very fine work with many layers to it. It is very atmospheric, inventive and appealing.
Pat Daly: Com-plex - This is an interesting work in that it juxtaposes two seemingly interrelated themes and rhythms.
Vincent Doherty: Snow din - This is a very engaging and appealing work for me both rhythmically and melodically.
Operating Theatre: Miss Mauger - This is a really interesting piece based essentially on a piano theme and which is also rhythmically dynamic.
Enda Bates: Liminality [excerpt] - Heavily distorted electric guitar based this work is incoherent to me due to the possible facts that it is so heavily distorted that it is disguising the essential music and also that it is only an excerpt and may be out of context of the piece as a whole.
a=apple [Karl Burke]: middlepoint - I honestly find it difficult to describe this work. It is essential electronic in nature with added guitar and other sound effects.
Trevor Knight: The Ancient Community of Dreams and Fatigues - I like this. It is what I would call old school synthesizer music that is quite atmospheric.
Alex Dowling: Recommended by Dentists [excerpt] - This is a very interesting work that is as strident as any bad experience at a dentist! There is a very disconcerting tapping throughout which heightens the tension that is inherent in the music and its rhythm.
Cathal Coughlan: Second City Bicycle Bounce - This is a series of very basic electronic motifs layered over a simple electronic melody with various sonic embellishments.
Amoebazoid [Keith O'Brien]: Prey - Unfortunately for me this is just a cacophony.
Princess Tinymeat: Devilcock - This is for me a somewhat recognisable track which features a basic Rock lineup of guitar, bass and drums. It has an added feature of additional tape enhancements.
Melodica Deathship: Maghera - A work based in traditional Irish music which is effectively give a very modern treatment.
Schroeder's Cat: Goodbye - I like this work with its layered compositional structure. It is inventive.
Daniel Figgis: Lucky's Bad Day - I particularly like this one. It has a very basic melody at its core but it is given some interesting and inventive treatments and enhancements along the way.



vandermolen

#99
Just bumping up this CD - one of my favourites of music by Irish composers.
The symphony 'De Profundis' in particular:
[asin]B00005AULA[/asin]
Potter studied with Vaughan Williams and admirers of the latter's Symphony No.6 or the fine Arthur Benjamin Symphony might enjoy it. The whole CD is immensely enjoyable.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).