Dorchadas
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Score title
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Dorchadas
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Composer
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Ann Cleare
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Program note
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Much of the energy and visceral force of my music stem from a struggle between firstly, a personal fear of ideas and conditions that petrify me, and, secondly, the artistic desire to explore these fears through sound.
Dorchadas (the Irish word for darkness) scales the density, gravity and depth of a fear of the dark. This darkness is akin to a boundless, open space where the mind moves illogically between racing to find illumination and allowing itself to revel in fear.
The piece encapsulates an attempt to shine the light of sound upon darkness, probing a thought that the fear that scares one witless is the very same one that can bring understanding. As Feldman suggests: “whereas in life we do everything we can to avoid anxiety, in art we must pursue it”.
Ann Cleare