Barra Ó Séaghdha is a writer on cultural politics, literature and music.
Barra Ó Séaghdha
The frustrations of a creative spirit locked into a deteriorating body are made vivid in a new film on the musician Tony MacMahon, writes Barra Ó Séaghdha.
‘Aisling?’, a new show of music, song, dance and literature directed by Darach Mac Con Iomaire and commissioned by Ealaín na Gaeltachta, was presented as a central part of ‘Bliain na Gaeilge’ – a year-long celebration of the Irish language. Barra Ó Séaghdha reviews its Dublin premiere.
On 7–25 September, the National Concert Hall hosted 'Composing the Island', a major series of concerts spanning one hundred years of Irish classical music. Featuring over 80 composers, 27 concerts, and almost 200 works, Barra Ó Séaghdha explores its achievements as well as the musical questions it raises.
As part of Ireland's 1916 commemorative programme, the National Concert Hall hosted a series of seven major concerts 'inspired by the 1916 Proclamation'. But, writes Barra Ó Séaghdha, did the series meaningfully engage with this history, or were they 'arranged with a view to demonstrating our harmlessness to an imaginary outsider'?
This is How we Fly express a free-spirited philosophy for group playing in traditional Irish music, while staying within the lines of that tradition.
Commissioned to compose a work in response to 9/11, John Adams confronted the question: can modern classical music still be the transcendental force we need it to be?
In works by Leitch Ritchie and John Beverley Nichols, Barra Ó Séaghdha discovers why Indian music is not serious art – while China and Scotland have problems too.
Soap & Skin (Anja Plaschg), Button Factory, Dublin, 22 October 2009; Chip Shop Music, Ireland Institute, Dublin, 23 October 2009; Pastures New: Paddy Glackin, Emer Mayock and Donal Siggins, Kevin Barry Room, National Concert Hall, Dublin, 29 October
Barra Ó Séaghdha finds a disapproving account of paganism and the occult
Barra Ó Séaghdha asks where the British free jazz movement fits within definitions of jazz
RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet / Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin / 3 April 2009
A period of freedom – and tension – in Chicago jazz through the playing of Anthony Braxton and the AACM
Elaine Clark (violin), Martin Johnson (cello), David James (cello), Madeleine Staunton (flute), Paul Roe (clarinet), Roberto Oliveira (percussion), Tine Verbeke (soprano), Jane O’Leary (piano) / Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin / 15 February 2009
Crash Ensemble, Darragh Morgan (violin), Alan Pierson (conductor), O’Reilly Theatre, Dublin 27–28 November 2008
Andrzej Bauer (cello), Roger Doyle (keyboard), Keith O’Brien (guitar, laptop), Brian Ó hUiginn (uilleann pipes) / Liberty Hall, Dublin / 19 September 2008
Barra Ó Séaghdha reviews Faking it, which explores the divide between artist and performance.
Tony MacMahon (accordion); David Power (uilleann pipes, whistle, fiddle, vocals); Dermot Bolger (poetry); Directed by John Comiskey; Produced by David Teevan/Ten42 Productions / Tradition:DL Festival, Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, 2 August 2008.
Francesco Turrisi (piano), Gabrielle Mirabassi (clarinet), Roman Bunka (oud), Ronan Guilfoyle (bass), Bijan Chemirani (percussion) / National Concert Hall, Dublin / 24 April 2008
Boris Baltschun, Erik Carlsson, Roy Carroll, Axel Dörner, Kai Fagaschinski, Martin Küchen, David Lacey, Jason Lescalleet, Quiet Club (Danny McCarthy & Mick O’Shea), Fred Van Hove, Paul Vogel / The Unitarian & Peppercanister Churches, Dublin / 28–30 March 2008
Liberty Hall Theatre/NCH, Dublin9-11 November 2007György Ligeti was still alive when Benjamin Dwyer had the idea of dedicating a festival to his work; Ligeti had been dead for over a year when the idea eventually came to fruition. It was, however, very...
Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin / National Gallery, Dublin / 2 December 2007
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