Dave Flynn
The 20-minute work, Joy, features the ensemble and guitarist Niwel Tsumbu, and “merges Congolese style guitars with NYC minimalism and Crash’s idiosyncratic instrumentation.”
A commission from the Crash Ensemble with funds from the Arts Council, the work will be premiered at Cork Opera House on 20 March. Described by the composer as a “Western concert party piece”, the work deals with the concept of joy in Western classical music. Dave Flynn writes about the idea in a “Programme Poem” for the work:
Joy used to be an essential ingredient of Western ‘concert’ music
Until ‘serious’ composers and critics took hold
Of the moral aesthetic of composition trends
Purely joyful music became something ‘old’But in the other styles of music I cherish Joy still abounds
Pop, Rock, Trad & African music are regularly imbued with joyful sounds
What joy there is in modern ‘art’ music is often tainted with jarring discords
It seems we’re unable to find unadulterated joy in unadulterated noise
The work is dedicated to the memory of Dave Flynn’s father, Frank Flynn (1944–2014) who unexpectedly passed away while the composer was writing the piece. While he initially struggled with finishing the piece, he recalled the well wishers who paid their respects at his father’s funeral: “It became clear to me that his life brought so much Joy to the world. This gave me the strength to go on.”
The programme also includes a new work by Niall Vallely, Time Flying, and pieces by American composers Michael Gordon and Nico Muhly.
Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland 