Irish Contemporary Music Listings
Provided by the Contemporary Music Centre

Documenting the work of Irish composers for nearly twenty years, the Contemporary Music Centre (CMC), Ireland’s national archive and resource centre for new music, has amassed a specialist collection of some 3,800 scores and over 5,000 recordings by Irish composers, dating from the early part of the last century to the present day.

As Ireland in 2004 still lacks a major music publisher of contemporary classical music, the CMC fulfils a vital role in disseminating the music of our national composers by making their scores and recordings available to the public through its library and web-site.
The Centre regularly receives scores and recordings from composers, commissioning bodies, performing groups, record labels and broadcasters. These are catalogued and made available through our library and, in the case of unpublished scores, are available for sale. Our extensive web site (www.cmc.ie) carries details of our collection of works and readers can find out more on many of the items contained in these listings by searching the Centre’s library database online.

But that’s not all! Our approach to documenting Irish composers goes far beyond the actual physical representation of the work (score, tape, recording). We also engage in a comprehensive approach to documenting each work, collecting programme notes, concert programmes and other ephemeral information, and building up a performance history for each composition.

Take, for example, the review by John McLachlan of the Crash Ensemble’s concert in the last issue of JMI. This concert featured the premiere of a work by Kevin O’Connell, Apollo and Marsyas. From looking at the record of this work in our Centre’s database, it is possible to view the programme note for the work and its performance history, see the details for this concert, and see if a review exists. All this information is seamlessly integrated in an advanced database system, and much of this database drives our web-site.

While it is beyond the scope of this listing to provide information on every item that CMC collects, in this and future issues of JMI it will provide information on recent works, recordings and articles that are added to our library. Works include the exact instrumentation (see www.cmc.ie/
library/abbreviations.html for a list of abbreviations) as well as the available physical formats in the Centre’s library. Many of the commercial CDs listed are available for sale through our online shop, and readers can also find out more information about the CDs there, as well as listen to short sound clips for each of the tracks.

The Contemporary Music Centre is in Fishamble Street in the west end of Dublin’s cultural quarter, Temple Bar. The Centre is adjacent to Christ Church Cathedral and Dublin Castle and is a short walk from Trinity College. We welcome all enquiries about any of the music or composers listed. Please contact us by phone or email. Our opening hours are Monday to Friday, 9.30-5.30.

Contemporary Music Centre, 19 Fishamble St, Temple Bar, Dublin 8. Tel: 01-6731922; Fax: 01-6481922; Email: info [at] cmc.ie; Web-site: www.cmc.ie.

NEW WORKS RECEIVED, AUG-OCT 2004
Agnew, Elaine, April Awake [2004], Mez-solo, pf; Kiss me [2003], satb; The Whisper of Ghosts [2004], children’s choir, vib, 3 perc, hrp, str, 2 speakers.
Ball, Derek, Of Love and Idleness [2004], bar-solo, pf; Working through [2001], cl, va/live electronics.
Bodley, Seóirse, Metamorphoses on the name Schumann [2004], pf-solo, 3333 3434, timp, perc, hrp, str; String Quartet No.3 [2004], 2 vn va vc.
Climent, Ricardo, Caad [n.d.], tape, video; Erratum [n.d.], tape; VCS3++ [n.d.], tape.
Comac, Bernadette, Amanda [n.d.], pf; Cluster [2000], pf.
Corcoran, Frank, Quasi un Pizzicato [2004], Mez-solo, fl, hrp, pf, perc; Quasi una Visione [2004], 2121 2221, 3 perc, hrp, pf, str; Tradurre Tradire [2004], tape.
Dowling, Fergal, arise [2004], tape; elswhen (DJs don’t have sex) [2004], tape.
Fennessy, David, room [2003], fl, cl+bcl, pf, perc, 2 vn va vc, CD; Some kind of [1999], s-solo, cl+bcl, va, pf.
Gardner, Stephen, Never…never…never [2004], 3333 3431 timp perc hrp str; The Ship Yard [2002], pf-solo, 2221 3431, timp, 3 perc, str.
Guilfoyle, Ronan, Macrocosmos [2004], 2222 4220, ssax, 2 asax, 2 tsax, barsax, pf, hrp, perc, drums, bgui, str.
Irvine, Brian, And Pigs Might Fly! [2003], 3222 4331, timp, perc, sampler, str; Six Gibberiing foools [2004], pf; You seem distracted! [2004], 2 vn vc hrp pf.
Kelly, Mary, Ceol Sidhe [2004], unison choir [female], pf; Fairies [2003], ss, pf.
Kennedy, Vincent, …In a yellow wood [2003], wind band.
Lazzarini, Victor, Novíssima Dialética [1998], tape; The Trane Thing, sax, live electronics.
Martin, Philip, Mystic Nativity [2003], 2222 4421 timp perc cel hrp str.
McLachlan, John, Fragile [2004], fl gui.
Murphy, Gerry, Sonata for Bass Guitar and Piano [1996], gui, pf; Tá Ann [2000], 4 perc. Ballavarra Music.
O’Dwyer, Adele, A Nature Walk, hrp, str orch; Freedom, symphony orchestra.
Parker, Brent, Credo [2002], satb, org, brass.
Parker, C. S. L., Five Songs for Sonya Keogh [2004], Mez-solo, satb, ebgui, hrp, pf, str orch; The Big Blue [2004], Mez-solo, ssaa, ebgui, hrp, pf, str; Three Songs for Sonya Keogh [2004], Mez-solo, satb, ebgui, hrp, pf, str orch; When you sing beneath a star [2004], children’s choir, pf, ebgui, hrp, str.
Synnott, Andrew, Macbeth 7 [2004], picc, cl, bn, tpt, timp, pf, vn, vc, db.
Walshe, Jennifer, a sensitive number for the laydeez [2004], asax, va, pf, perc, video; he wants his cowboys to sound like how he thinks cowboys should sound [2003], mez-solo, Ct-solo, T-solo, Bar-solo, B-solo, lighting; saw it in a movie [2003]; 2 vn va vc [2 boomboxes, torch]; THIS IS WHY PEOPLE O.D. ON PILLS / AND JUMP FROM THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE [2004], 1-10 instruments [solo or ensemble] (including voice), Milker Corporation; XXX_Live_Nude_Girls!!! [2003], 2 female voices, cl, trb, acc, vc, 2 pupeteers, 2 camera operators, CD.
Wilson, Ian, Cartography [2004], vn, Universal Edition (London) Ltd, UE 21 280; In Plato’s Cave [2003], fl, ob, cl, bn, hn, Universal Edition (London) Ltd, UE 21 281; Licht/ung [2004], 3333 4331, timp, 2 perc, hrp, str, Universal Edition (London) Ltd, UE 21 278. Negro Negro elegía [2004], vn, vc, pf. Universal Edition (London) Ltd, UE 21 278.
Wilson, James, Sonata No. 6 [2004], vn pf.

CDS AUG–OCT 2004
Mulvey, Gráinne, ‘Stabat Mater’, 49th Cork International Choral Festival*, Corkfest Records CF03
Corcoran, Frank, ‘Quasi un Concertino’, A Journey into the New and the Unknown*, Cantus Ltd 020
Doyle, Roger, Charlotte Corday and the Lament of Louis XVI / Passades – Volume I, BVHaast 0304
Wilson, James, ‘Runes’, Contemporary Music for Soprano and Cello*, Simax PSC 1052
O’Dwyer, Adele, Freedom: Selected Works, AOD 01
Dwyer, Benjamin, ‘Tango para Joaquín’, La Historia del Tango*, Gamelan GAM 0001
Agnew, Elaine, ‘Statues’; Alcorn, Michael, ‘Off the Wall’; Bennett, Ed, ‘Lost and Found’; Gardner, Stephen, ‘Mutable Sea’; Mawhinney, Simon, ‘Barcode 2’; O’Connell, Kevin, ‘Piano Trio’; Music from Northern Ireland, Lontano Records Ltd LNT117
Campbell, Bill, The Reed Bed, Bill Campbell BC 01
*Includes works by other composers.

ARTICLES AUG–OCT 2004
Cox, Gareth, ‘Darmstadt Revisited: Seóirse Bodley’s “News from Donabate” (1999)’, in Barra Boydell, ed., Proceedings of the 1st Annual Conference of the Society for Musicology in Ireland NUI Maynooth, 2-3 May 2003, Society for Musicology in Ireland, Maynooth, pp. 137-142
Dungan, Michael, ‘An Interview with Gerald Barry’, CMC web-site (www.cmc.ie).
Farrell, Hazel, ‘Minimalism in Irish Contemporary Composition: Eric Sweeney’s String Quartet (1996)’, in Barra Boydell, ed., Proceedings of the 1st Annual Conference of the Society for Musicology in Ireland [as at Cox above], pp. 143-50
Grimes, Jonathan, ‘An Interview with Jennifer Walshe’, CMC web-site (www.cmc.ie)
Klein, Axel, ‘“The distant music mournfully murmereth…”: The influence of James Joyce on Irish composers’, CMC web site (cmc.ie)
Klein, Scott W., ‘James Joyce and Avant-Garde Music’, CMC web site (cmc.ie)

Listings compiled by Jonathan Grimes, Information Manager with the CMC.