Seoirse Bodley

[febnyc]

Does anyone know anything of the music of Seoirse Bodley?  Specifically the Symphonies 1 & 2?  One of the websites uses the words "avant garde."  Just how far does he push the modernist envelope? 

(PS - Also - how does one pronouce Seoirse?)

Thanks in advance.

[Alan Howe]

Try here...
http://cmc.ie/composers/digi_works.cfm?composerID=8

[Alan Howe]

It's pronounced "Shor-sha"...
http://www.behindthename.com/name/seoirse
(It's the Irish for "George")

[febnyc]

Thanks.  A few samples - albeit nothing conclusive.  The String Quartet would not interest me; the Chamber Symphony No.1 perhaps.  I found, elsewhere, a clip of Symphony No.2, "I Have Loved the Lands of Ireland."  Sounds quite lyrical for the 30 seconds or so I heard.

I appreciate the references.

[Dundonnell]

Latvian has recordings of Bodley's Symphonies Nos. 1, 2 and 3 which he has promised to upload at some point

I have Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5 on an oldish Marco Polo cd. I have not listened to them for quite some time and I shall need to remind myself what they sound like but I do recall them being more 'advanced' in idiom than, say, those by John Kinsella(whose music appeals greatly to me

[semloh]

I raised the issue of Bodley's symphonies in another thread (Irish composers, maybe). I have the lovely 2nd Symphony on tape, courtesy of the BBC, but was hoping someone else had it in digital form. Then I found out that the same performance is available on CD (I may have given details of the CD in the other thread... I'll check).

[JimL]

It's pronounced "Shor-sha"...
http://www.behindthename.com/name/seoirse
(It's the Irish for "George")

You mean the actress Seoirse Ronan is really named George?

[eschiss1]

Hrm, I thought it can also mean Sarah- but maybe not. But maybe Georgina/Gina for a female then?

[Dundonnell]

I raised the issue of Bodley's symphonies in another thread (Irish composers, maybe). I have the lovely 2nd Symphony on tape, courtesy of the BBC, but was hoping someone else had it in digital form. Then I found out that the same performance is available on CD (I may have given details of the CD in the other thread... I'll check).

Good gracious me   I had totally missed that 2009 RTE Lyric release of the Bodley 1st and 2 Symphonies.

Ouch....more money

[Dundonnell]

I took delivery today of the RTE Lyric cd of Bodley's Symphony No.1 for Chamber Orchestra and Symphony No.2.

Very impressed indeed by the Second Symphony The Symphony No.1 and the other work on the disc "A small white cloud drifts over Ireland" are a little too 'advanced' for my own particular tastes although the latter does intersperse Irish folk music passages with more irregular musical structures but the Symphony No.2 is a very fine work, written in 1981 to a commission by the Irish Government in commemoration of Padraig Pearse. It makes more use of traditional Irish-type folk melody and, although, clearly a work in a modern idiom, it has a beautifully limpid clarity, is splendidly orchestrated and has a most appealing and attractive mix of lively, energetic music and some passages of gorgeous melody.

Quite the best and most appealing Bodley I have heard to date   Recommended with enthusiasm

.......NO, amend that last comment

After just listening to the Bodley Second Symphony again: ".....with the greatest possible enthusiasm"

Semloh described the symphony above as "lovely". It really, really is lovely. This has been my discovery of the year so far

[semloh]

I took delivery today of the RTE Lyric cd of Bodley's Symphony No.1 for Chamber Orchestra and Symphony No.2.
Symphony No.2 .... It really, really is lovely. This has been my discovery of the year so far

Colin, I am so pleased!  Mind you, the year has hardly begun! 

The 2nd Symphony has sat unplayed on my tapes for over 20 years, and you have prompted me to (finally!) order the CD.   

[Dundonnell]

I know that sometimes( ) my enthusiasm runs wild

...and yes, the year is but young and I have already started making some wonderful discoveries amongst the vast collection of Russian and Soviet Music and among the Latvian Music uploaded by members but the Bodley is the best so far

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Yes, indeed Seoirse Bodley is a tremendously gifted composer, and I was impressed by the works on this RTE disc. (His Symphonies 4 and 5 on an older Marco Polo CD also sits proud on the shelves.)

Another contemporary Irish composer I much enjoy is Ian Wilson. Try another RTE disc with some orchestral pieces - Winter Finding, the 2nd Violin Concerto (with the intriguing title "...an angel serves a small breakfast"), and a terrific piece called 'Man-o'-War'.

I'm going to be busy over the next few days since postie this morning delivered three new RTE discs (by courtesy of HMV at £8.99 each). First, Kinsella's Symphonies 7 and 8; second Aloys Fleischmann; and third Frederick May. I'm much looking forward to exploring these three.

Fortunately my wife didn't spot the post arriving, for doubtless I would have been castigated for all the other small packages containing, among other things, the new CPO Gouvy disc, the new Hyperion of Britten (with Anthony Marwood, Lawrence Power, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Volkov this promises to be a real treat), the Timpani CD of Jean Cartan's chamber works including the two String Quartets (haven't heard a note of Cartan at all, but from what I've read of him this CD was irresistible), plus a few new Naxos discs.

The joy of receiving this little handful was rather soured by a calculation quickly done last night. It involved estimating the average number of CDs standing upright in a metre of shelf, a rough calculation of the total length of all shelves, an assumption that a CD is of 60 minutes duration, a supposition that I might spend 3 hours a day listening to music in this CD collection (and excluding broadcasts, concert attendances etc)......and with some horror I began to spot the conclusion emerging: even if I continued to occupy this portion of space for a good few more years and made it to a ripe old age (and retained both sanity and sense of hearing until the end) I couldn't possibly listen to all the CDs in the collection. Wouldn't get anywhere near it.

Heck alive! Simple arithmetic can be a fearful thing. Surely other folk on the forum have a similar problem for I sense that few of us are sprightly young chickens? What would be a wholly rational response to the issue? For example, should one make the decision, say, to never listen to Brahms again on the grounds that he has already occupied many many hours, and thereby make a bit more space for other composers? But I simply could not make such a decision; it would be unthinkable. To ignore the whole issue and just go on gaily listening to whatever might happen to take the fancy would seem a sharp case of bad faith, and I try not to indulge in self-deception. There can't be a solution to the problem. So what strategy to adopt? (And no-one is going to talk me into not listening to the Bruno Walter symphony again!!)

Apologies to all...somehow meandered from Bodley to mortality via a few other composers!

[Dundonnell]

I think that you will find that the new Kinsella cd is of the Symphonies Nos. 6 and 7, rather than 7 and 8

The problem you identified in the second half of your post has little or nothing to do with Seorise Bodley but I just thought that I ought to respond by saying that you are by no means alone in being increasingly aware of the issue you identify and the dilemma it poses.

I must have a considerably smaller cd collection than you because I did calculate that if I listened to three different cds each day I could work through my entire collection in three years......but it doesn't work like that of course One cannot always listen to a single new cd each day and there are many, many cds I return to over and over again. Then there is the ever-increasing number of downloads from this site

The plain truth is that I know that there are hundreds of cds on my shelves I have listened to once and am unlikely to listen to again....unless someone here recommends the music in particular

However....back to Bodley