Orchestra
Below I highlight a selection of works from this category which includes works for string orchestra as well as symphony orchestra.
For a full list of orchestral works please visit:
In 2012 the BBC London Proms focused on celebrating the ambition and achievements of youth with a number of concerts spotlighting a range of young orchestras working with inspirational conductors, composers and professional counterparts.
The Dark Hedges are an ancient avenue of mature beech trees near the village of Armoy in County Antrim. Over the past 260 years, the beech trees guarding both sides of the road have reached up and across to each other, becoming heavily intertwined and creating a mysterious tunnel where shadows and light play through the branches. In this single movement piece I’ve explored textural shades of light and dark and changes of focus from a large sound-world to a solitary sound, weaving angular melodic shapes through the orchestral palettes.
for solo flute and double orchestra
Dur. 13’
Commissioned by BBC
Premiered by Sir James Galway, Ulster Youth Orchestra & Ulster Orchestra, conducted by JoAnn Falletta, at the 2012 BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall on 4th August 2012. Live broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Dark Hedges (2012)
“… For Dark Hedges, the now massive orchestra had heft in every department, not least in the percussion, which had spilled out onto a temporary stage in the Royal Albert Hall’s Arena. Such a central position was appropriate given their prominent role throughout this most engaging piece. Bowed cymbals and gong created the eerie setting to which the piece’s title refers, and the same players then went on to drive through the second and third sections with power and syncopation. Alongside interesting orchestration and unusual percussion effects, the emergence of Sir James Galway from amongst the premiers in the arena added to the sense that this was a composition of events following one another, rather that causing one another. As such this unpredictable piece was compelling from beginning to end.”
Photographer Sharon Millar
“The two orchestras combined to form an impressive ensemble, giving great weight to the brassy melodic cells .. Agnew’s diverse percussion group gave a vivid and surprisingly amusing magical impression of the magic that must historically have been associated with such a remarkable natural landmark.”
for symphony orchestra
Dur. 10’
Commissioned by RTÉ lyric fm
Premiered by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Gerhard Markson in Limerick University Concert Hall, 3rd May 2009. Live broadcast on RTÉ.
Make A Wish (2008)
Make A Wish was commissioned to celebrate RTÉ lyric fm’s 10th Birthday in May 2009 when I was their first appointed Composer in Residence. The piece is inspired by the custom of making a wish when you blow out the candles on a birthday cake. Traditionally the birthday person makes a private wish, which will come true if all the candles are extinguished in a single breath. The history of placing candles on the cake can be traced to Kinderfest, an 18th century German birthday celebration for children. A letter by Goethe recounts: "...when it was time for dessert, the prince's entire livery...carried a generous-size torte with colourful flaming candles that began to melt and threatened to burn down..." The tradition was to place candles, symbolic of the passage of time, for each of the individual's life with some added candles anticipating years to come.
The piece was subsequently performed by the RTÉ NSO at the 2010 RTÉ Horizons New Music programme, Music of Our Time, celebrating the work of Irish woman composers in November 2017 and in November 2021 under conductor Jaime Martín, all in Dublin’s National Concert Hall. The Ulster Orchestra’s performance of Make A Wish was broadcast live form the Ulster Hall during BBC Radio 3’s Hear and Now series in January 2018.
“…but more complex elements emerge from the systematic tonal language, the well-proportioned melodies and figurations, and the effective, economical orchestration”
for string orchestra
Dur. 6’
Commissioned and premiered by the Irish Chamber Orchestra as part of a six-date Irish tour and premiered in the Iontas, Castleblaney on 16th September 2010.
Twilight (2010)
Twilight, an atmospheric quiet piece, explores the orchestra’s rich string sonority, evoking a time of meditation, unassuming and still, in the quiet time after sunset and before sunrise. The piece opens as it closes, a series of delicate pulsing chords framing a flowing central section reflecting the soft glowing light from the sky. A solo violin line is echoed by a solo cello refrain in the last few bars, as the sun hovers just below the horizon.
Along with an earlier piece The Moon, Twilight was released on the ICO CD Night Moves with conductor Gérard Korsten. It has since been performed in Limerick University Concert Hall with Portuguese conductor Joana Carneiro in March 2012, by Manchester Amaretti Chamber Orchestra with Irish conductor Sinead Hayes and by the Ulster Orchestra in the Ulster Hall in Belfast.
for string orchestra
Dur. 11’
Commissioned and premiered by the Irish Chamber Orchestra at the Two Cathedrals Festival, Derry on 22nd October 1994.
Strings A-Stray (1994)
Each of the four continuous movements of Strings A-Stray has its own strong dance characteristic. In the opening Mr Mani, four pitches, comprising of a specific intervallic shape, are juggled with irregular rhythmic combinations associated with South Indian percussion music. This slowly melts into the following Sway, whose expansive phrases allows the music to quietly breathe. A Mazurka features familiar rhythmic and phrasal shapes which play around with the mis-placing of accents and the juxtaposition of previously heard material while the final Bouree provides contrast with its smooth and pulsating manner and restricts itself to the earlier four-note mode. This pulse travels through varying textures, solo lines and noticeable quotes before building up energy prior to an abrupt end.
After its premiere at the 1994 Two Cathedrals Festival in Derry Strings A-Stray was performed in St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church in Galway and has since enjoyed numerous world-wide performances as well as a CD release by Black Box Music Strings A-Stray. The ICO performed it at their 1999 Killaloe Music Festival and later that year at the International Barossa Music Festival in Australia. The following year they toured the piece to the John F. Kennedy Centre in Washington DC and then featured it as part of their 2000 Irish Spring Tour as well as performing it as the opening piece on their collaboration with Nigel Kennedy during a four-date Irish tour in July 2003. In January 2013 the Irish Chamber Orchestra opened their concert at the Konzerthaus in Berlin with Strings A-Stray to celebrate the German launch of Ireland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The Ice Ensemble performed Strings A-Stray in Dublin’s Temple Bar, while the Manchester Ivernia Orchestra with conductor Sinead Hayes opened their concert with it in Manchester Cathedral in March 2012. Later that year the Polish Radomska Orkiestra Kameralna gave it its Polish premiere while the Magogo Kameroskest gave its Dutch premiere in Tilberg. It has been performed by the Ulster Orchestra under conductors Takuo Yuasa and Ken Montgomery during the BBC Summer Invitation Concerts at the Ulster Hall and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. More recently it has been performed by the Ivernia Orchestra in Manchester Cathedral, RTÉ Concert Orchestra in Liberty Hall and by the Australian Monash University Chamber Orchestra.
“Agnew’s Strings-A-Stray is a feisty, sharp, spiky, playful and pert fusion in four movements of wide-ranging influences from Ireland to South India via Poland and a bit of Bach each with their own distinctive dance characteristic. There’s a compelling inner pulse, too, hinting at more troubling undercurrents beneath the music’s string-saturated surface.”