Sometimes, suddenly, I feel the urge to write about a moving moment, expressing myself in just a few condensed lines. That moving moment was triggered by ” A Place Between” the first of a series of albums by Louth Contemporary Music Society.

a Short History

Here is an excerpt from an article by Niall Crumlish which will give some you background information on the Louth Contemporary Music Society. To read the entire piece please go to: 2010/https://psychiatryandsongs.com/2021/04/09/music-is-a-gift-that-we-all-get-to-share-louth-contemporary-music-society-state-2010/

In 2006, one of the more remarkable stories in Irish music began when Dundalk residents Eamonn Quinn and his wife Gemma Murray had a baby and found that they couldn’t get up to the city for concerts as often as before. Rather than do what a couple in that situation might reasonably do – stay in and stock up on box sets – they decided that no-one was better qualified than they were to bring the world’s leading contemporary composers to their home town. (“I had no idea what I was doing,” says Eamonn.) Thus, with a DIY ethic fit for a punk movement or an Elvis movie, the Louth Contemporary Music Society, or LCMS, came into being.

New Compositions by Contemporary Composers

Last week I received the beautiful cd “Folks’ Music” an album with new compositions by contemporary composers: Cassandra Miller, Laurence Crane and Linda Catlin Smith. The three compositions on the album were commissioned by Éamonn Quinn of LCMS. If you are familiar [or maybe not so familiar] with contemporary ‘modern classical’ music you will find here some beautiful accessible music. .

A Place Between

Then by coincidence I heard a beautiful rendition of John Cage’s ” in a landscape ” by Michael McHale. It’s on the first album production of LCMS titled ” A Place Between “. There are several beautiful performances on the album, but the one that triggered me to write this post is, ” Good Night ” by Henryk Górecki. From the liner notes: Good Night [1990] is a requiem for the memory of Michael Veneer, the artistic director of the London Sinfonietta. Scored for soprano, alto flute, piano and three low-pitched gongs. It uses pedal points and subtle variations on highly coloured harmonies to create what is in effect a ritual in music. Only in the last movement does the soprano sing the words that the music has already been implying. The performances are really great and the resulting sounding music is beautifully touching. Listen to the album here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5EkBrxpjg4wELFGfu4d3ZH or buy the album here: https://louthcontemporarymusicsociety.bandcamp.com