Beyond the Notes with Vonn Vanier
This Grammy-Winner Told Me to Shut Out the World and Write | Donnacha Dennehy
First, you hear the music. Then the composer explains how he built it. Donnacha Dennehy is a Grammy-winning Irish composer and Princeton professor who has built music from the notes between the notes in a singer’s voice, the physical sensation of giddiness, and the changing light across an entire year. I’m Vonn, a 19-year-old college student and composer, and I’m currently writing a piece of my own on a deadline. I wanted to understand how someone like Donnacha finds an idea worth pursuing and turns it into finished music. In this conversation, we listen to three pieces: “Head” from his new album Limina, Grá agus Bás, and “July” from the Grammy-winning Land of Winter. If Donnacha’s music is new to you, that is part of the experience. We play each excerpt before he takes us inside it. Donnacha explains how sean-nós singing led him to build harmony from the microtonal movement of a singer’s voice, why he wrote a piano concerto around the personality of a particular performer, and how the changing amount of daylight across a year determined the shape of Land of Winter. He also describes what winning a Grammy felt like, including the strange moment when the statuette arrived at his house by FedEx. At the end, I ask Donnacha to give me homework for the piece I’m writing. He does not give me a theory exercise. He tells me to shut off the internet, put away my phone, set a clock, and complete five protected one-hour writing sessions over two days. That is now my assignment. If you have ever struggled to protect your creative time or turn an idea into finished work, this conversation is for you. Follow Beyond the Notes to find out what I write and whether Donnacha’s assignment changes the way I compose. WATCH THE VIDEO VERSION https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHGyFdQh_b8 LEARN MORE Beyond the Notes with Vonn Vanier https://beyondwithvonn.com Donnacha Dennehy https://www.donnachadennehy.com/home Listen to Limina https://www.nonesuch.com/albums/limina Listen to Land of Winter https://www.nonesuch.com/albums/land-of-winter
