Emotion and melody shine forth in Siar

Arts Week with Judy Murphy

If there’s a more uplifting and melodic tune in the Irish traditional music canon than Waltz an Chleamhnais/Connemara Wedding Waltz, you’ll go far to find it.

Written by Johnny Óg Connolly for his sister Mary Ellen and her husband Patrick, and played for the first dance at their wedding in 2014, it’s on his new album Siar, which will be launched this Saturday night in Spiddal’s Tigh Giblin.

Siar is collection of tunes which Johnny has composed over the past two to three years, each of which has a story.

They are either “written for someone I know very well, a musician I admire a lot or someone who has died”, he explains.

In the sleeve-notes, Johnny describes the pieces as “souvenirs, mementos and collections in music of a life among family and friends, of encounters with great musicians, and of some sad and many joyful occasions”.

Caoineadh Mhaolra Seoighe – Maum Trasna Lament is one of the sadder compositions, written in honour of Myles Joyce who was wrongfully hanged for murder by the British authorities in 1882.  This piece was commissioned by the former Coimisinéir Teanga, Seán Ó Cuireáin as part of a commemorative event, held in Galway City Museum in 2012.

The second lament was written for Johnny Óg’s friend Jane Simmonds, a singer and guitarist from New Zealand who lived in Spiddal during the 1990s and who died in Australia in 2012.

Those laments convey a depth of emotion as, in a different way, do the album’s sunnier pieces, such as In the Warm South, written for his friend Deirdre Nic Chonaonaigh.

A highlight of Siar are Siar go hInis Bearachain and an tÓileán Aerach, waltzes which Johnny wrote for his father, the renowned melodeon player, Sean Johnny Connolly.

“I start off by playing few notes,” says Johnny Óg of the way he composes. “Sometimes I get a feeling in my chest – I can’t describe it but it’s an indication that something is going to happen. At other times, it’s more of a slog.”

He’s not someone who goes around with tunes fermenting in his head constantly, he explains. They generally come if he’s thinking about people he admires, or about family members or about particular events, such as weddings, funerals or christenings.

The Laird of St Johnston, a strathspey, came about because of his admiration for the great fiddle player, Tommy Peoples whose virtuosity was literally, an inspiration.

The aim “is to give a flavour of his beautiful melodic compositions and the virtuosity of Tommy’s music”.

Similarly, the jig, Homage to Rooney is Johnny’s tribute to Leitrim fiddle player Brian Rooney, and his “lightness of touch and lovely variations”.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.