The Quangle Ensemble

Now that the random info update is done I think I should do an update on my music.

In performance related news The Space Within went down very well at my final Queen's Composers' Concert. My first experience conducting and I quite enjoyed it, I want more! I was surprised how attentive players are. At one point during the rehearsals I remember thinking 'why are they slowing down' and stopping to question what happened. It turned out my mind had wondered and it was I that was slowing down which in turn caused them to! Unfortunately I wasn't able to perform it with the players spaced around the room but I think it worked in the more standard format of everyone at the front. You can listen to it and have a look at the score here and decide for yourself.

Another recent performance was by the Royal Irish Academy of Music's percussion ensemble. A piece of mine called Prevalence. Unfortunately I handed them a rather bad score (I tried something new layout wise which really didnt work)which meant I didn't get an amazing performance but even with that I was very happy with the piece. Again recording and score can he heard and seen here. Would be good to hear any comments on either piece.

Now onto the title of this blog......The Quangle Ensemble!

The name means nothing now but I'm hoping that soon, at least for you Belfast and Dublin folk, it will mean something. Its a new music ensemble that I am currently setting up in Belfast with the help of Mo Doris. It stemmed from the basic idea that arts organisations dont seem to create a business they seem to create a body that eats funding and puts on music (I'm not saying this is always the case or that is necessarily true just my opinion) so to combat that I want to create a business like organisation that doesn't rely on grants. When I say doesn't rely on grants I'm still going to apply for them but I'm trying to work out a way (which I think I have) to make it sustainable after the grants have run out. The plan for the ensemble is to have about 15 resident performers and about the same number of composers. The mix of instruments in the ensemble will be sufficient to create traditional ensembles, modern ensembles and a chamber orchestra when everyone is together with everyone getting paid for every concert they are involved in and signed up to the payment scheme I've come up with.

At the moment there is one concert around February confirmed with the composers (myself, Mo Doris, Ryan Molloy, Marc Tweedie, Ben McHugh and Sean Kenny) and performers (Gascia Ouzounian on violin and Laura McGrogan on Cello). This will first be played in Belfast and then again in Dublin and possible a few other places as well. The first concert will be in December but I'm still working on the players and composers for it. I'm keeping everything under wraps about December at the moment but everything will follow in due course.

Recent music

The other night I sat down and worked out what my output has been this year (from Jan 1st) and I was shocked. I have written around 30 mins of music which works out about 20 secs per day. I was shocked how I have written so much but then I have finished Relations (a piece for stereo orchestra), Rain (for soprano and guitar), The Wavering George (Violin and Cello) a bass clarinet solo and Unresolved for solo piano. Then there is a percussion piece and a guitar and violin piece that I have started to write within the last week. I dont know how this has come about but I think a switch has flipped in my head from wanting to compose to being able to compose. Every piece (bar Resolved) has either had a workshop, a performance or a performance scheduled. The situation I'm in at the moment is amazing until I remember I still have essays to write.

Also in the last few months I have had very good press reviews. The first one for Imagined Notes by Michael Dervan of the Irish Times which you can read here and the second for Puddle Wonderful. First real reviews I've had and I'm very happy with both!

I feel a bit of info about the pieces is needed, I don't normally do this unless asked but for some reason I'm compelled to. Imagined Notes was written for my final electro-acoustic composition last semester and is basically a reaction against what I see as noise music. What I mean by this is music with no overt pitch bass and simply uses real world sounds to create a piece. I know a door closing or a footstep does have a pitch but not in the same was as a trumpet. So the piece was written to lie somewhere in the middle of the noise music and real music. To do this I took recordings of a piano and an oboe and processed them via transposing stretching etc. The transpositions aimed to create a triadic harmony with the same kind of pull and push of tonality so chords were built up with 5ths, 3rds etc. Though terms such as chords should be used even more loosely in this piece than most because the transpositions where never meant to be precise but more to give the impression of tonal harmony which I think I succeeded in doing. Please do comment and discuss I'd be interested to hear feedback and if others think I did it as successfully as I think.

Relations is a piece for large orchestra with double of most things. This is to create a stereo effect for the audience. The piece is also based on one chord (G-B-E-F) this chord is intended to resonate the whole way through the piece of the piano mainly at the beginning and the end as this section is built on the harmonic series of each note. The music swings round the orchestra or bounces across from left to right. Unfortunately hearing this effect isn't going to happen any time soon, I dont think I could pull together an orchestra needed for it, but maybe in the future.

I might talk about the percussion piece a little in a week or two after its completely finished but it is similar to Relations in the sense that it is based on one note rather than one chord and develops in a similar vane to The Space Within, which I conducted in the 3rd Queen's Composers' Concerts and a recording will be up soon.

I think this is the first blog post in a while that wasn't for the reason of bitching, in fact it had no reason behind it I just felt compelled to write one. Please feel free to give me any comments or feedback about my music. Always interested to hear peoples opinions. You can also get some of my scores at Sibelius Music or Emerging Composers Library
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Concerts

Three months have gone by and not even one update, I feel ashamed of myself considering the amount that has happened.
October saw the continuation of rehearsals for the opera, there was quite a lot of stress and a few arguments that had to be calmed down but eventually it all worked well for the concert in November. Really happy with how Puddle Wonderful went and managed to get a, rather bad quality, recording of the last night which is up here. All four operas were well received, we didn't fill the place but I think there was about 300 came over the three nights. The week after that the second Queen's Composers' Concert happened. The hall was about 3/4 filled (which again I was really happy with). Afterwards I got quite a few emails congratulating me on the concert. Again the performance of Untitled went really well, though up until the last two rehearsals it wasn't quite coming together so I had to step in and flail my arms about in some kind of uniform pattern and tempo, this helped make it an excellent performance.
After this concert there was a rather large feeling of emptiness upon realising I had no planned performances planned. This swiftly changed when I joined, and was made secretary of, the Irish Composers Collective. Due to this group I now have a performance of Imagined Notes (22nd February) and of an as yet unwritten violin and cello duo on the 22nd of March both of which will be in the National Concert Hall in Dublin. Two days after the latter concert will be the third Queen's Composers' Concert, and the final one organised by me. For this concert I'm conducting The Space Within, a septet written last year for my final composition. It will be my last Composers' Concert because as of September I will be in Glasgow Collage of Music studying MMus in composition. Finally at some point within the next few months I'll be getting a performance of a soprano and guitar piece called Rain, with words by Edward Thomas, written for Becca Hopkins and Declan Keenan. Hopefully more concerts will come my way soon but I think thats a decent amount to be going on with. Though I'm starting to think of organising an ICC concert in Belfast before the end of the summer but that is still a very hazy idea.
I think thats a brief catchup of everything thats happened for anyone thats interested.

Before leaving

I leave to Paris and inter railing tomorrow! Will be trying to update this thing on my travels maybe with pictures but more than likely just with text. Away for a month and heading round Europe clockwise form Paris to Barcelona. It should be fun, really looking forward to it.

As for last weekend and this week I have been frantic. It was my 21st birthday last thursday and then friday afternoon I flew to York to CNMC (creating new music communities) to have Beyond the Tone played. Though the players only had a few hours rehearsing they did a very good job of it, hopefully get a recording of the concert up soon or at least when I get back. The whole day was a mix of open rehearsals, open ear sessions, networking, composers surgiories and two concerts all of which were really interesting and useful. Though I only managed to get to the tail end of one of the open ear sessions. The event was in York uni and was part of the ICC and organised mainly by Peter Moran and James Whittle.

Once I got home from that I had to organising moving flats and getting packed for inter railing! Oh yea, also decided to scrap what I had written of the opera and start again. Got about 2mins written and going to try and do some more while I'm away with many hours spent on trains.

Anyway thats all interesting to mention. Check back regularly over the next month for updates on my travels.