Irish, an agglomeration, a heap or pile (as in cairn). This piece is the result of ongoing visits to the Wexford coast, most especially to Hook Head and Carne Beach. At the Hook, the tumultuous stratification of the sedimentary rocks creates the impression that they are either sliding down into or emerging up from the sea. The overlapping layers create powerful cross-rhythms, great masses are cut off from the mainland, and the overall impression is one of mesmerising upheaval happening on a vast time-scale.
On Carne beach, on the other hand, coastal erosion is taking place on a scale that can be measured in months, if not weeks. I recall one visit to the place, when we found a section of a field in the middle of the beach, cut off from the rest of the landscape, the rocks on the beach gradually becoming sandgrasped, held in suspension by and merging into the soil which terminated in a flat table of coarse grass, the whole heap rising up out of the beach in a defiant but hopeless gesture against the elements. These ideas are the main source of Carn. The piece is not meant to be programmatic, nor is it meant to be impressionistic. It is instead a personal resonance with the landscape. Carn is composed in layers, all of which use the same material, but in different ways, starting slowly (44 beats per minute) and speeding up (through 52, 63, & 76 to 104 beats per minute.) The layers overlap, piling up to the fastest and most active, then retreating to the opening chords which are their source, before the final thrust.
Carn was commissioned by the Project Arts Centre, and is dedicated to Iris and Gary Johnston, in whose Wexford home I was staying when the piece was conceived. I am most grateful to Sherin Goudarze-Tobin and Reamonn Keary for their patience and hard work, and to the Project Arts Centre and Fiach Mac Conghail for their support.
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