Memoria (2021)

Composer note
Memoria is a piece inspired by the way people (or our inventions of those people) live on vividly in our minds, even when they are no longer there in real life. I’ve never felt this more strongly than in the last two years when more than ever we have been made aware of the fragility, preciousness and precariousness of life itself.  This year, I lost two mentors that were of immense importance to me: Louis Andriessen and Hormoz Farhat. Memoria itself has a trajectory from the ethereal and elusive to the firmly present. It draws on some material from my opera The First Child that was based on a disguised melody.  In Memoria however, the disguised melody is gradually revealed, eventually appearing fully fledged in shuddering gasps. It is dedicated to the memory of Hormoz Farhat, my composition professor at Trinity in Dublin, and later my friend, someone who had a remarkable impact on the course of my life. 

— Donnacha Dennehy