Crash Ensemble are back at this year's New Music Dublin Festival performing new commissions from five creators from their Crash Works programme - a two-year commission and development hub offered in partnership between Crash and New Music Dublin.
Crash Works creators Laura Hyland, Úna Monaghan, Anselm McDonnell, Amy Rooney and Yue Song have just completed a two year programme working with Crash musicians, workshopping, and exploring new ways of creating music. During this time, the creators also benefited from artistic mentorship and professional support.
The resulting new works are inspired by everything from sleep patterns to the natural environment, climbing, auditory systems and parallel happenings and the frequency of instruments in printed word.
The creators introduce the works below.
Laura Hyland, Sleep Piece (for Julia)
Thematically, my piece is about sleep. I took the overtone series of the four string instruments as a starting point, and built the piece around explorations of these pitches across the range of the ten ensemble instruments.
For me Crash Works has been a chance to explore in practice the conventions of different music-making traditions - both those of my own folk/pop background, and those of contemporary classical music - and to find ways of authentically communicating artistic ideas across these different artistic methodologies or 'languages'. It's been thrilling and challenging in equal measures! I really value the spirit in which Crash Ensemble has embarked on this project, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it progresses over the coming years, especially in its potential to positively and practically address the cultural biases that often stand in the way of collaboration between different music-making traditions.
Anselm McDonnell, Honnold
My piece Honnold is based on climber Alex Honnold’s record-breaking free solo (climbing without ropes) of the daunting El Capitan cliff face in 2017. Like climbing, playing an instrument requires incredible focus, mastery of minutiae, and the attention of the whole body is geared towards the points of contact with a surface. My piece uses a variety of everyday objects (paperclips/magnets/fishing line/hair bobbles/children’s toys/a washing machine drain hose and more!) to alter Crash’s instruments, making their sounds more unfamiliar and unpredictable. Crash Works has been a fantastic experience for me: an opportunity to focus on composing one piece over the course of a year, exploring ideas regularly with musicians. Crash provided a supportive and creative environment which encouraged me to experiment and push my imagination to its limits. This is the third piece I have written for them, and each project has been a major step forward in my creative practice as I have had time and support to explore new methods of working and making music.
Úna Monaghan, Little Auditoriums
Crash Works was a great opportunity to continue my pieces exploring the mechanisms of contemporary classical music and ensembles, and how they impact the preparation for performance, and the composition itself. In Little Auditoriums I have been thinking of different ways of approaching timing and notated music. I have been interested in experimenting with the role of the conductor and conventions around staging and audience, particularly where these are absent in other music making. I have loved meeting the other Crash Works composers and following the development of their pieces. It has been a friendly and supportive network, and a rare insight into the processes of others. Crash Ensemble are outstanding, dynamic, and ambitious in what they seek to achieve, and it has been brilliant to be a part of that energy, ecosystem and community this year."
Amy Rooney, Disequilibrium
Crash Ensemble have welcomed me with open arms into the team; the group have provided endless support across all aspects of the music making process, with expertise, productive discussions and encouragement along the way.
The collaborative creative environment provided by the ensemble has allowed me to explore new sounds and new music, culminating in a work that pushes and expands my creative boundaries in exciting ways.
Disequilibrium reflects on our auditory system, which is incredibly sophisticated in wholly managing the acoustic information presented to our ears in dynamically changing environments.
The piece uses dynamics and timbre to generate an increasingly complex web of sound, with various instruments coming in and out of focus as the music progresses. Later, the live performance is joined by pre-recorded material, which serves to heighten the sense of imbalance within the music."
Yue Song, Senses IV
Senses IV is the last piece of a series of works based on the text: When you hear the birds in the dark, you know you will see the dawn; When you feel the rushing wind under the sun, you can smell and taste the coming rain We perceive this world through our senses, they are the most direct and purest connection to the world.
The subject of this piece is the relationship between humans and the natural environment; the first section is an imitation of plants growing in nature; the second section expresses the rapid development of humans; the third section seems chaotic but has its own order, representing the harmonious coexistence of all living things.
The time spent with Crash Ensemble working on Crash Works has been a wonderful experience. The group gave helpful feedback on the instrumental writing and electronics during the workshops, and their precise, insightful and efficient way of working is inspiring."
Crash Works/You Heard It First is on Friday 21st April at the Studio at the National Concert Hall, Dublin. Student discount available - tickets here.
