Year: 2025

Instrumentation: String Orchestra & Percussion (a solo piano arrangement is also available)

2 Percussion: 5 Woodblocks, Tubular Bells, Xylophone, Suspended Cymbal, Snare Drum, Bass Drum, Shaker, Vibraphone (with bows), Claves, Tam-tam, Triangle

Violin I
Violin II
Viola
Violoncello
Double Bass

Duration: 25:00″

Mvt I – The Angelus Bells 7:00”
Mvt II – Lilliburlero 3:30”
Mvt III – Planxty Síocháin 8:30”
Mvt IV – Sunrise Over Goliath 5:20”

Performance History: Commissioned by a private charity. Premiere tba.

About:
Symphony No. 1 commemorates the 1998 signing of the Good Friday Agreement and celebrates the ongoing efforts towards peace and cross-community exchange in Northern Ireland. The work draws together musical traditions from across the divide: Irish rebel songs, Unionist marching tunes, and the shared melodies that transcend both. Although today these tunes remain a cultural marker that signals your allegiance (Protestant or Catholic) and are still weaponised by some as symbols of division and intimidation, here they are transformed into a celebration of peace, hope, and a shared future.

The commission brief was specifically to engage with the symphonic form and tradition, using a neo-Romantic harmonic language. While this isn’t my usual approach, it was an enjoyable challenge to cast this symphony in the traditional four-movement form and draw on the harmony of composers such as Rachmaninoff, Schubert, and Debussy. Each movement highlights a soloist from the orchestra and is rooted in symphonic tradition, while also engaging deeply with Northern Ireland’s Unionist and Nationalist musical heritages, including the modal harmony of our traditional music.

I. The Angelus Bells (Sonata-Allegro) – Built around elements of the Irish rebel lament The Foggy Dew, this opening movement depicts the signing of the Good Friday Agreement and the turbulence and hopefulness which surrounded it. The ringing of the Angelus consists of three bell chimes as a call to prayer, culminating in nine closing chimes that mark the end of prayer. The three chimes are heard throughout the movement until the nine chimes that close the movement signal the answer to this prayer for peace.

II. Lilliburlero (Rondo) – Inspired by the upbeat Unionist marching tune The Protestant Boys, which dates to the time of William of Orange, this movement evokes the spirited energy of the marching tradition. It is transformed here into a lively dance with prominent percussion lines that pay homage to the virtuosic playing of Northern Ireland’s marching bands.

III. Planxty Síocháin (Through-Composed Theme & Variations) A Planxty is music written in honour of an individual, and síocháin is Irish for peace. This movement is an ode to peace, referencing the tune Rosc Catha Na Mumhan. This melody is unusual in that it is played by both Protestant and Catholic communities: the tune is used in the Protestant folksong The Boyne Water, commemorating William of Orange’s victory at the Boyne, and also Come Out, Ye Black and Tans, an Irish Republican song lampooning the British regiment present in Ireland during the 1919 Irish War of Independence. This movement reflects on how this music has transcended the political divide, but also the challenges that there still are to peace in post-conflict societies.

IV. Sunrise Over Goliath (Sonata Form)– Goliath is one of the two famous cranes in Belfast dock. It dominates the skyline, a symbol of the resilience, industry, and steadfastness of the city. In this closing movement I reflect on the idea of a new dawn over Northern Ireland through the birth of another generation. My generation, known colloquially as the Ceasefire Babies, who were born around the time the Good Friday Agreement was signed, have grown up during the lingering trauma and gritty reality of establishing peace. But our children will not. They will grow up more distant from conflict, with the opportunity to build a new society on the hard-won peace their grandparents achieved. The second subject of the Sonata Form loosely alludes to the tune The Belfast Hornpipe, a traditional tune without political affiliations that is shared by both sides of the community and captures the cheery optimism of a country looking towards the future.

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