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'TOTEMIC' (2020)began as a response to Luciano Berio’s piece for viola and percussion “Naturale”, which is based on Sicilian folk songs. My piece focuses one Irish song, “The Mountain Streams”, but uses an original melody I wrote in 2009 when I was engaged in research into sean-nós ornamentation. This melody appears throughout the piece in different guises, usually in elongated fragments, but the essential character of sean-nós singing and ornamentation is, to my mind, present throughout.
At the same time, the piece is an exploration of some more ethereal sounds that viola and percussion can produce individually and together, building upon recent works I composed for solo violin and solo cello by incorporating a range of sounds and gestures which have timbral, motivic and dramatic value for the piece.
Finally, a fragment of my 1996 piano piece “A Haunted Heart” appears near the end, as a farewell to a unique person in my life who had recently passed away.
'TOTEMIC' was co-commissioned by Belfast Music Society, SOUND Aberdeen, and New Music Dublin. The recording appears on the Ergodos album "Totemic" (2022).