WHAT ARE THE INFLUENCES WHICH SHAPED MODERN IRISH COMPOSERS?
A THREE-PART SERIES ON RTÉ LYRIC FM NARRATED BY BARRY MCGOVERN AIRING AT 7PM ON FRIDAYS 9TH, 16TH AND 23RD OF SEPTEMBER 2016.
The 1970s was a defining period for music in Ireland with a number of major talents blossoming. Roger Doyle produced his first LPs; Raymond Deane and Gerald Barry traveled to study at the very epicentre of new music in Cologne, Germany, studying with Stockhausen and Kagel; and Jane O’Leary arrived in Ireland from the US, establishing Ireland’s first contemporary music ensemble, Concorde.
This was the era in which contemporary Irish music came of age, shedding its self-conscious often nationalist image, and becoming internationally focussed, in keeping with the wider political and economic shift in Ireland after it joined the European Economic Community.
Cross Currents is a landmark three-part music documentary series, narrated by award-winning actor Barry McGovern, exploring contemporary Irish composers and their work. Produced by Athena Media in association with the Contemporary Music Centre and RTÉ lyric fm, the last 50 years have seem Irish composition flourish as young Irish composers look to Europe and beyond to re-imagine an Irish identity in music, paralleling many of the societal and economic shifts in post-de Valera Ireland. After the ‘nation-building’ period of Seán Ó Riada’s music and the watermark 50th anniversary of the 1916 Rising in 1966, a new generation of musicians and writers sought to explore their identity within the influence of continental Europe.
Episode 1 of the series airs at 7pm Friday the 9th of September on RTÉ lyric fm. Detailed background on the series and composers at crosscurrents.ie.
