Cantares de la Frontera
Peter Garland’s Cantares de la frontera (1986) are songs from the Mexico-U.S. border, gently afloat in their irregular repetitions and also in how the melodic drifts are not entirely tied to the wandering bass.
Clíona Doris continues with a short piece Deirdre McKay wrote for her in 2018: handwoven. The reference is clear: a harp is like a loom. As the composer puts it: ‘Focussed on the harp’s own workings, neat fingers weave, in close quarters, drawing out patternings.’ The patternings are repeated, or else they shift, always within the orbit of the busy stillness of G flat arpeggios that open the composition and recur. The five-flat key signature is the same as in the Peter Garland piece, and may remind us how borders bristle in Ireland as in the southern United States.
handwoven was commissioned by RTÉ Sunday Miscellany for their 50th anniversary celebrations at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin, in December 2018.
handwoven was written for, and premiered by, Clíona Doris.
credits
released June 2, 2021
Clíona Doris, Harp
Recorded at Echo Music Productions, Co. Louth
Recorded by Edward Holly
Produced by Clíona Doris, Edward Holly
Mixed and Mastered: Simon Kiln
Executive Producer: Eamonn Quinn
Funded by the Arts Council and Create Louth
