Donnacha Dennehy facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Donnacha Dennehy
|
|
|---|---|
Donnacha Dennehy, 2010
|
|
| Born | 17 August 1970 Dublin, Ireland
|
| Occupation | Composer |
Donnacha Dennehy (born August 17, 1970) is a well-known Irish composer. He is also the leader of the Crash Ensemble, a group that plays and records new and modern classical music. A music expert named Bob Gilmore said that Donnacha Dennehy is one of the most famous Irish composers of his time. This is because his music is known around the world, and he also leads the Crash Ensemble.
Contents
Donnacha Dennehy's Musical Journey
Donnacha Dennehy was born in Dublin, Ireland. He studied music at Trinity College in Dublin. There, he learned about composing music from Hormoz Farhat. He then continued his studies in the United States at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received a special scholarship called a Fulbright Scholarship to help him with his studies. He earned both his master's and doctoral degrees there. After that, he spent time studying music in other places, including IRCAM in France and with Louis Andriessen in the Netherlands.
In 1997, Donnacha Dennehy came back to Dublin. He helped start the Crash Ensemble. This group focuses on playing and recording new and modern music. Some of his pieces for the Crash Ensemble include Junk Box Fraud and Derailed. Later, he returned to Trinity College Dublin to teach music.
In 2005, he wrote a piece for a choir and orchestra called Hive. This work showed his growing interest in microtones. Microtones are very small musical intervals, even smaller than the notes on a piano. He also became interested in harmonies based on how sound waves vibrate.
Another important piece he wrote is Grá Agus Bás (which means "Love and Death" in Irish). It was first performed in 2007. This piece included music from the sean nós tradition. Sean nós is a very old style of traditional Irish singing. Donnacha Dennehy worked with a famous Irish singer named Iarla Ó Lionáird on this project.
Donnacha Dennehy is a member of Aosdána. This is a special group in Ireland that supports artists.
His Recorded Music and Operas
In 2007, a record company in London called NMC Records released a CD of Donnacha Dennehy's music. It was called Elastic Harmonic. In 2011, another company, Nonesuch, released an album with Grá Agus Bás and a collection of songs called That the Night Come. These songs were based on poems by the famous Irish poet William Butler Yeats.
Donnacha Dennehy has also written operas. An opera is a play where most of the words are sung. His first opera, The Last Hotel, was first shown in 2015 in Edinburgh. It was then performed in other cities like Dublin, London, and New York. A recording of this opera was released in 2019.
Another opera he wrote is called The Hunger. This opera is about the Great Irish Famine, a very sad time in Irish history. It was first performed in 2016. It was later shown as a full stage production in St. Louis and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The orchestra Alarm Will Sound performed with it.
From 2012 onwards, Donnacha Dennehy was a visiting scholar at Princeton University in the US. He also worked as a composer-in-residence for the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in 2013 and 2014. In 2014, he joined the music department at Princeton University as a teacher.
Some of Donnacha Dennehy's Compositions
Donnacha Dennehy has written many different types of musical pieces.
For Orchestra or Chamber Orchestra
He has composed pieces for large groups of instruments, like a full orchestra or a smaller chamber orchestra.
- Elastic Harmonic (2005); for violin and orchestra
- Hive (2005); for voices and orchestra
- Grá agus Bás (2007); for voice and chamber orchestra
- The Hunger (2013); for soprano voice and chamber orchestra
Small Ensemble with Voice
He has also written music for smaller groups of instruments that include a singer.
- Two Yeats Songs (1993); for soprano voice and flute
- The Weathering (2004); for soprano voice, recorder, percussion, violin, and video
Instrumental Ensemble
Many of his works are for groups of instruments without a singer.
- Pluck, Stroke, and Hammer (1997); for piano and string quartet
- Derailed (2000)
- Mild, Medium-Lasting, Artificial Happiness (2004); for saxophone quartet or other similar instruments
- Tilt (2006); for electric guitar quartet
Solo or Electroacoustic Music
He has created pieces for a single instrument or for electronic sounds.
- Begobs I–IV (1995); for piano
- PADDY (2003); for percussion
- Stainless Staining (2007); for piano and backing track
Open Ensemble
These pieces can be played by almost any group of instruments.
- Blips and Static (2002); for multiple boomboxes
- A Fatal Optimist (2008); for any instruments
Operas
Donnacha Dennehy has written several operas.
- The Last Hotel (2015)
- The Hunger (2016)
- The Second Violinist (2017)
- The First Child (2021)
Discography
Here are some of the albums featuring Donnacha Dennehy's music:
- Elastic Harmonic. NMC, 2007
- Grá agus Bás. Nonesuch, 2011
- Stainless Staining. Cantaloupe, 2012 (features Lisa Moore playing piano)
