Iarla Ó Lionáird, the singer for Grá agus Bás, is a leading exponent of traditional sean-nós song and is committed to its renewal and development.
Compositional Technique
For Grá agus Bás, Donnacha Dennehy used pitch-analysis software to study the subtle microtonal and microrhythmic inflections in Iarla Ó Lionáird's sean-nós singing.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Donnacha Dennehy views his use of indigenous Irish music in concert works as an artistic risk, challenging critical views that such music should not be altered or is too simple for contemporary language.
Composition History
Grá agus Bás (Love and Death) grew from Donnacha Dennehy's fascination with sean-nós, an old Irish tradition of highly ornamented, often unaccompanied vocal music.
Composer Biography
Donnacha Dennehy, the composer, first gained recognition in the late 1990s during a period of economic growth in Ireland, with early works like Junk Box Fraud and Glamour Sleeper.
Composition History
That the Night Come was commissioned for American soprano Dawn Upshaw and the Crash Ensemble, with funding from the Arts Council of Ireland.
Compositional Technique
Grá agus Bás combines equal-tempered tuning when harmonically mobile with quasi-just-tuned spectral approaches when harmonically static, creating an 'eerie alliance' or 'clash of worlds'.
