Kevin O’Connell’s North: Modernism, Sibelius, and Identity
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7557/13.5488Keywords:
Kevin O'Connell, North, Ireland, Identity, Jean Sibelius, ModernismAbstract
The influence of Jean Sibelius and Scandinavian modernism can show up in unexpected quarters: the Northern Irish composer Kevin O’Connell (b. 1958) names the Finnish great as one of his crucial influences, particularly evident in the composition North. Having grown up under the shadows of the Northern Irish Troubles since the late 1960s, O’Connell’s music can be read as a way to engage with this specific identity crisis. Another northern influence on this piece, albeit non-musical in topic, includes Seamus Heaney’s collection of poetry of the same title and structure, with Heaney also hailing from Derry in Northern Ireland.
Alongside such issues of identity, this article assesses the determinacy of Kevin O’Connell's orchestral composition, entitled North (1997–98), on Sibelius’s Symphony No. 4. North displays motivic transformation as a significant element of O’Connell’s orchestral style and the central element utilized to construct an extended and coherent piece of music.
As mentioned, Sibelius’s influence is not only musical; in his position as a composer from northern Europe negotiating a path between nationalist political movements and the productive engagement with the central European artistic tradition, in the process laying claim to full membership of the exclusive club of European composers – all of which contribute to ‘Conceptualizing the North’.
References
Carter, Elliott. 1997. Collected Essays and Lectures, 1937–1995, ed. by Jonathan W. Bernard. Rochester NY: University of Rochester Press.
Connolly, S. J. (ed.). 2007. The Oxford Companion to Irish History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Deane, Seamus. 1984. ‘The Artist and the Troubles’. In Ireland and the Arts, ed. by Tim Pat Coogan, special issue of Literary Review, 42–50. London: Namara Press. http://www.ricorso.net/rx/library/criticism/classic/Anglo_I/Deane_S/Troubles.htm.
Heaney, Seamus. 1987. The Crane Bag, vol.11. Dublin: Blackwater Press.
Heaney, Seamus. 1996. North. London: Faber and Faber.
Hennessey, Thomas. 2005. Northern Ireland: The Origins of the Troubles. Dublin: Gill and MacMillan.
Longley, Edna. 1979. ‘Poetic Forms and Social Malformations’. In Tradition and Influence in Anglo-Irish Poetry, ed. by Terence Brown and Nicholas Grene, 153–180. London: Rowman & Littlefield.
Longley, Edna. 1985. ‘Poetry and Politics in Northern Ireland’. The Crane Bag 9(1): 26–40.
McCay, Jennifer. 2013. ‘From the Besieged City: The Orchestral Music of Kevin O’Connell’. PhD dissertation, University College Dublin.
McCay, Jennifer. 2014. ‘“From inside my head”: Issues of Identity in Northern Ireland through the Music of Kevin O’Connell’. In Music and Identity in Ireland and Beyond, ed. by Mark Fitzgerald and John O’Flynn, 121–135. Farnham: Ashgate.
Morrison, Blake. 1982. The Poetry of Seamus Heaney. London: Methuen.
O’Brien, Eugene. 2005. Seamus Heaney: Creating Irelands of the Mind. Dublin: The Liffey Press.
O’Connell, David. 2010. ‘The Art Music Composer and the Northern Ireland Troubles’. MA dissertation, University of Glasgow.
O’Connell, Kevin. 1993. ‘Representing Violence: Irony, The Symbolic Order and Seamus Heaney’s North’. Essay coursework for MA in Anglo-Irish Literature, Trinity College Dublin.
O’Connell, Kevin, in association with the Contemporary Music Centre. 2003. A short, informal questionnaire answered by Kevin O'Connell. Accessed 14 November 2013. http://www.cmc.ie/articles/article648.html
O’Connell, Kevin. 2005. ‘Stanford and the gods of modern music’. The Musical Times, 146; 33–44.
O’Connell, Kevin. 2005–2006. Composition lectures, Trinity College Dublin.
O’Connell, Kevin. 2007. ‘Techniques of a Musical Language’. Analytic commentary to doctoral composition portfolio, Dublin City University.
O’Connell, Kevin. 2010. Interview with the author, 5 May.
O’Connell, Kevin. 2011a. ‘On Torsten Rasch’. Accessed 13 October 2013. http://www.kevinnoconnell.com/blog/blog20.html
O’Connell, Kevin. 2011b. Email correspondence with the author, July 27.
O’Connell, Kevin. 2014. North recording. Accessed 26.04.19. https://open.spotify.com/album/04IqHR6j3kFPRxSlX9pFlr
O’Driscoll, Denis. 2008. Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney. London: Faber and Faber.
Réti, Rudolph. 1951. The Thematic Process in Music. New York: Macmillan.
RTÉ. 2009. Heaney at 70. Accessed 14 November 2013. http://www.rte.ie/heaneyat70/pdf/Heaney_at_70_Flyer.html.
Schoenberg, Arnold. 1967. Fundamentals of Musical Composition, ed. by Gerald Straing and Leonard Stein. London: Faber and Faber.
Schoenberg, Arnold. 1975. Style and Idea: Selected writings of Arnold Schoenberg, ed. by Leonard Stein, trans. Leo Black. London: Faber and Faber.
Sibelius, Jean. 1912. Symphony No. 4. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel. Reprinted 2003. Mineola: Dover Publications.
Stanford, Charles Villiers. 1911. Musical Composition: A Short Treatise for Students. London: Macmillan.
Tawaststjerna, Erik. 1971. ‘Third Symphony Op. 52 (1907)’. Accessed 2 August 2011. http://www.sibelius.fi/english/musiikki/ork_sinf_03.htm.
Tawaststjerna, Erik. 1986. Sibelius, trans. by Robert Layton. London: Faber and Faber.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
