In Conversation: Writing | Music

26 May 2016 - 7:00pm
Roasted Brown, Filmbase, Temple Bar, Dublin

In Conversation:Writing | Music

26th May, 7pm

Roasted Brown, Filmbase, Temple Bar

in association with the International Literature Festival Dublin

The conversation about new music continues, this month with two presentations by composers about their work with text, their collaborations with writers, and the relationships between music and the written word. This is a free event, but spaces are limited, so early arrival is advised.

Michael Holohan will talk about his long friendship with poet Seamus Heaney, about setting Heaney’s poems about childhood, the letters they wrote each other throughout their long collaboration, and the projects that were left unfinished.

Karen Power will discuss her collaboration with writer Lance Olsen, developing a performance piece based on extracts from his book Dreamlives of Debris. This is a hybrid re-telling of the Minotaur myth in which the monster takes the form, not of a beast with the head of a bull & body of a man, but rather of a deformed little girl, Debris. Debris possesses the ability (& the curse) to hear the unending thoughts of strangers throughout history from Sappho & Pliny to Borges & Edward Snowden. That is, she is a kind of living instrument through which a multiplicity of voices & times travel, an extended metaphor for our contemporary sense of being awash in massive, networked data fields that may lead everywhere & nowhere at once. Karen will present this new work, and “our unique sound, text, space and flow narrative that aims to move beyond music and words as separates and create a unique language between both.”

In Conversation is a new series of events by the Association of Irish Composers, as part of their dedication to creating new media for discussion and presentation of new music. In Conversation provides opportunities for composers, performers, presenters and the public to get together to discuss aspects of new music openly over a decent coffee. Events will include talks and presentations by guest composers and performers, panel discussions, listening sessions and opportunities for students and researchers in new music to present their work. Part of the Irish Composers on Irish Music series.

Supported by Arts Council Ireland and IMRO.