Donnacha Dennehy's Exuberant Post-Minimalism

Stop us if you’ve heard this one: a young composer from Ireland goes to America, France and Holland to study, gets the post-minimalism gospel (with a sideline degree in spectralism), and takes it back to his native country. Unless you’ve heard Donnacha Dennehey, it’s unlikely that you’ve encountered any such tale. For that reason alone, it’s no slight to the small but striking catalog of Dennehey’s works to note that he’s as critical to new music for his role as an activist – as a cofounder of Crash Ensemble, a leading new-music group in Dublin – as for his composing.

But the composing is pretty important, too. Take Grá Agus Bás, as performed by Crash Ensemble and vocalist Iarla O’Lionáird on Dennehey’s 2011 debut CD of the same name: The insistent lines for brass may recall any number of totalist-inspired composers, but their use as a backdrop for a vocal part requiring an expert in traditional Irish folk singing is fully original. Its use of overtones also looks forward to the later Dennehey work for piano and sampler (memorably performed by Lisa Moore), Stainless Staining, which hauntingly conjures about 100 overtones based on G# while also minding an insistent, early minimal-style groove.

Dennehey’s mix of languages – traditional and contemporary at once – shows a composer moving beyond the first blushes of influence that were so apparent on early pieces such as STAMP (to avoid erotic thoughts). A significant later piece for violin and orchestra, Elastic Harmonic, seems to have absorbed the spiky timbres of Leroy Jenkins’s compositions and instrumental approach; other pieces on the NMC album that are grouped with that same composition show the composer’s affinity for rock and dance music textures.

Having a great grab-bag of sonic influences is one thing – making them all work together quite another. But even a brief look at the list of willing interpreters who have become advocates of Dennehey – from Dawn Upshaw to the Bang on a Can universe – reveals that he’s not just riffing off his (fine) taste, but synthesizing those affections into a winningly idiosyncratic personal style. 

Listen to Dennehy talk about his own music: