The Devil’s Dream

Description

I was introduced to music through the fiddle tradition of Donegal. The tradition is distinctive in Ireland: not like the languid lilt of the Clare style nor the light patter of the Galway style, the Donegal style looks outwards, across the sea, for its closest kin—to Scotland and to Nova Scotia. Aggressive and driving, the tunes are as stark as the bogland, and the bowing as jagged as the cliffs. A leading of exponent of this tradition was my teacher, the fiddle player James Byrne and this string quartet is loosely based on two tunes that I learned from his playing: An Londubh and The Devil’s Dream. James died on his walk home from a seisiún in the early hours of 8 November 2008 near his home in Mín na Croise. This piece imagines this walk. Half-remembered fragments of the slow air, An Londubh, slowly coalesce until its full form is reached, into which the reel, The Devil’s Dream, intrudes as a danse macabre that demolishes the air. The air comes screaming back, only to be subsumed by the reel once more. After a quotation of the plainchant Dies irae, the reel itself disintegrates. From the ashes of the Devil’s Dream, the air emerges in its final, transfigured, form. This piece is written in memory of James Byrne (1946–2008), and for his partner Connie, and their daughters, Séana, Aisling, and Merle.