In 1992 I was just beginning to take myself seriously as a composer. I appeared to be at odds with what was going on in contemporary music. By contemporary I mean contemporary classical, as I didn’t feel that what I was doing was miles away from what was happening on the fringes of popular music at the time. I rarely had anything performed by a third-party, and had to content myself with creating the performance opportunities myself. My story is echoed by composers all over the world. If you want your material performed, then do it yourself. Thus was born An Uaithne.

Initially there was a strong instrumental element to the group, but around 1992 we had become a choir, although we had a few instrumentalists in our ranks. An Uaithne became Anúna in 1992 and the change of name also brought a change of emphasis. I really wanted people to hear my music, but up until this time I had been writing it very much for myself. That had to change if I wanted to move forward and gain a wider audience for my work.

In late 1992 I began composing the pieces for the first album ANÚNA. There would obviously be some of the early stuff that I had reconstructed and arranged (Cormacus Scripsit, Media Vita, Crist and St Marie), with a nod towards the traditional things that I loved (‘Sí do Mhaimeo Í, The First Day, Jerusalem). I also had a sprinkling of more standard Classical repertoire (The Blue Bird, Silent O Moyle). However, I was acutely aware that this recording should highlight my own material as well, maybe even define my own compositional voice a bit better, so I set about creating some new songs that would compliment the other pieces.

I knew that the unusual sonic nature of Anúna would tie the album together, but I was also acutely aware of the limitations of the singers. The songs had to be singable, and retain the energy that I knew was one of the defining elements of the choir. The session was very rushed, with all sixteen songs being recorded in five hours flat. Two of my pieces, Pater Noster and Sanctus, were in our repertoire for some years and I added two new ones that we hastily recorded at the end of the session from the sheet music. The Raid was based on a song I had written many years before called Dirgidh bhar Sleagha Sealga, and was a series of block, homophonic sections that had some pretty tricky false relations. I didn’t tell the choir that it was quite tricky to sing, so they sailed through it. I wasn’t looking for perfection on this track, just energy. Invocation was a very different beast.

I had been reading Robert Graves’ extraordinary book The White Goddess and my mind was full of ideas about Ireland. I began the song with Amairgen mac Mi’led’s simple statement ‘Ailiu iath nErenn‘ – “I invoke the land of Ireland”. I then listed some random images of the natural world, some of them rather mundane on the page, but the connection of the text and music really does invoke something unique and special. The song was immediately singled out by some early purchasers of the album, and the choir loved singing the piece despite the tricky nature of the sustained chordal movement against the solo lines. I was delighted with the reaction, as this piece meant more to me than anything else on the record. I based the entirety of the next Anúna CD, Invocation, on this song. The piece became part of the epic Wind on Sea in 1994, the final track on that release, and took on a new life entirely…but that’s another story.

Invocation was really where it all started for me. Its a very hard song to sing for the soloists, and I am delighted that we are including it in our tour of Holland this year in January, as the choir really love performing it. In the late summer of 2010 I brought Anúna to Co Galway and filmed a video for the song. I have only just finished editing it. Despite some rather static camera work and a number of complaints of hypothermia from the assembled cast, I think it captures the essence of the song pretty well.

I love filming. Its a different form of composition, and a significant one too. I had become tired of asking people to record my ideas visually, so in 2002 I bought a large Sony VX2000 camera, a huge Mac and a copy of Final Cut Pro. Now, I am pleased to say, I can, when I get time, try and link together some of my visual and aural ideas on my tiny camera and midget laptop when I am travelling. I hope you enjoy the video below. I enjoyed every minute of creating it.

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