Choral Music

2023

Arrangement of Oliver James by Fleet Foxes for Dulciana and Dowry Strings.

26.06.2023 Sandford Parish Church, Dublin

2022

Arrangement of Une Meeles by Maarja Nuut and Ruum, for Dulciana.

28.03.2022 Sandford Parish Church, Dublin

2021

A setting of the advent text O Come O Come Emmanuel

for Dulciana Vocal Ensemble, SSAA

2020

for Dulciana Vocal Ensemble

Arrangement based on a Luke Kelly performance of the song by Ewan McColl.

28.03.2022 Sandford Parish Church, Dublin

2019

for Dulciana Vocal Ensemble

Setting of the poem by W.B.Yeats (1888) for upper voices SSAA

17.10.2019 Dowry headline show, Pepper Canister Show, Dublin

Poem
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

2017

for Dulciana and Judith Lyons

SSAA – A work in 4 sections

26.06.2017 Dulciana, Freemasons' Hall, Dublin (Premiere)

Text by Éna Brennan

Absorb the rays and greet the sun
Stained pages ripped out one by one
Shed the damp layers, only the good deserves to stay
Time to take on the lead role of your life, your play

Pen posed to write a new way to behave
React to the reflection of the path you pave
Don’t be afraid to feel out of sorts
But also don’t fear letting someone into your fort

Remind yourself that all seeds grow
When given the love they need and room to sow
With the quick scratch of a match fire is re-born
To burn away the decay and remove the thorn

Outstretched hand from an unexpected place
Cleanses that feeling of self doubt and huge weight
There are those in this wold who deal with far more strife
So I’m introducing colour back into my life

2015

for Dulciana

Setting of Trip poem for SSAA

09.11.2015 Dulciana, Freemasons' Hall, Dublin (Premiere)

Programme Note

Trip is the first choral piece that I have written for all female voices, as well as the first setting of one of my original texts. The work revolves around observation from a third party of a romantic relationship between two people when they are together and when they part ways.

Poem by Éna Brennan
Luke fell for you as he tripped over that broken part stolen bicycle
Scratched and scrapped both in and out of the bed on a Saturday afternoon
Picking crumbs off of your form-fitting top ten playlists on shuffle for the day
Passing the time, feeling his gaze on the back of your neck, Ready to go out for brunch again

Blue Peter badge pinned proudly to the lapel of your well todo man,
Why wouldn’t you try to catch him if you can.
You fell for him after he tripped over the final hurdle on that
List of things you felt you should only say yes to

Your heart is always jumping out of your chest but you always end up back in his nest

All we are to each other are scars,
Reminders of those who made the world less noisy If only for an instant

A part of you heart is always with them and a part of theirs is with you too.

2014

Premiere of my choral setting of Seamus Heaney's Blackberry Picking, performed by New Dublin Voices in St Ann's Church as part of the Irish Composers' Collective Conversations II concert.

12/07/2014

Programme Note

Blackberry Picking is a setting of Seamus Heaney's poem of the same name, written in 1966. The poem treats the dissatisfaction of obtaining an object of desire. Heaney recalls the annual ritual of plucking copious amounts of berries from their home in the sun and the disintegration of their appeal as nature runs its course and they rot before they can be eaten. Heaney's vocabulary is rich with varying sounds and alliteration, and he uses strong imagery to bring the poem to life. One of the strong comparisons is that of the sticky hands of the blackberry pickers which are likened to the blood-stained hands of Charles Perrault's Bluebeard.

Poem:
Late August, given heavy rain and sun
For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.
At first, just one, a glossy purple clot
Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.
You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet
Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it
Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for
Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger
Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots
Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.
Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills
We trekked and picked until the cans were full,
Until the tinkling bottom had been covered
With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned
Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered
With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's.

We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.
But when the bath was filled we found a fur,
A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.
The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush
The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.
I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair
That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.
Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.

2013

for my granny

Setting of the poem by W.B.Yeats (1888)

for Chamber Choir SSAATTBB

01.03.2013 New Music Dublin Festival, Kevin Barry Room, National Concert Hall (Premiere) Recording courtesy of CMC

Soprano Éna Brennan, Sherry Hazlett
Alto Raeghyna Zutshi, Dominica Williams
Tenor Garret Farrell, Seamus Sutton
Bass Robert Blake, Eoghan Desmond

Awards & recognition
C (Commended) Feis Ceoil 2013

Poem
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

2012

for my mother

A setting of the advent text O Come O Come Emmanuel

for Chamber Choir SSAATTBB

2011

Setting of the opening poem of Charles Baudelaire's Petits poèmes en prose (1869) for Mixed Choir SSAATTBB and Solo Quartet

02.04.2012 Trinity Singers, Trinity College Chapel, Dublin (Premiere)

Regularly performed by Mornington Singers (venues incl. Cork Choral Festival, Cork Florilège Vocal de Tours, France, Pipeworks Festival, Dublin and St. Nicholas' Collegiate Church, Galway).

Included in Under-Song, a 10-track compilation of choral music released in 2017.

Awards & recognition
VHC (Very Highly Commended) Feis Ceoil 2014

Work featured on PROJECT : ENCORE™, a continually expanding database of new, post-premiere choral works endorsed by a panel of professionally renowned conductors intended for use by both composers and conductors.

Poem by Charles Baudelaire
Qui aimes-tu le mieux, homme enigmatique, dis? ton père, ta mère, ta soeur ou ton frère?
Je n'ai ni père, ni mère, ni soeur, ni frère.
Tes amis?
Vous vous servez là d'une parole dont le sens m'est resté jusqu'à ce jour inconnu.
Ta patrie?
J'ignore sous quelle latitude elle est située.
La beauté?
Je l'aimerais volontiers, déesse et immortelle.
L'or?
Je le hais comme vous haïssez Dieu.
Eh! qu'aimes-tu donc, extraordinaire étranger?
J'aime les nuages... les nuages qui passent... là-bas... là-bas... les merveilleux nuages!