The music in Seóirse Bodley's "A Girl" concentrates on highly-charged emotional expression and an underlying sense of human sympathy, calling for a special style of singing based on traditional Irish song.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Arnold Schoenberg's eventual break with tonality ended a 400-year tradition in music and influenced many subsequent generations of composers.
Historical Context
Schoenberg's early compositional years were influenced by a world on the brink of explosive change, with concepts of human identity, philosophy, and man's understanding of the physical world being shattered and reconstructed.
Performer Biography
Aylish Kerrigan, mezzo-soprano, is recognized as a foremost interpreter of Irish vocal music and established the first library of Irish music in China at the Wuhan Conservatory of Music.
Composition History
Seóirse Bodley's song cycle "A Girl" was commissioned by Radio Telefîs Eireann and first performed in the National Gallery, Dublin, in 1978.
Composer Biography
Arnold Schoenberg, a largely self-taught composer, received his only formal instruction in counterpoint from his close friend, Alexander Zemlinsky, also a composer.
Composition History
Arnold Schoenberg composed his song cycle, Das Buch der hängenden Gärten, Op. 15, during a turbulent personal and artistic period between 1908-1909.
