Lough Derg 1 & 2 Two song cycles on place and poetry

Watershed is a new song cycle for voice and piano inspired by the natural bodies of water and land in Ireland’s midwest region and along the Atlantic coast. With music by renowned Irish composer Ailís Ní Ríain and text by Ballina-Killaloe resident, poet Jessica Brown, it is a song cycle inextricably rooted in place and in nature. Central to the song-texts—which are taken from Jessica’s superb collection, And Say (Revival Press, Limerick 2019)—are themes informed by the writer’s personal interaction with water and the surrounding landscapes in counties Clare and Tipperary: Holy Island, the hills of Moylussa and Tountinna overlooking Lough Derg, the dunes of Fanore, the Burren cliffs, and the forest paths of the Galtees and the Silvermines. Musicians Julie Comparini and Yonit Kosovske perform this new work as part of a contemporary Art Song programme titled Lough Derg 1 & 2, in which they present two song cycles, new and slightly older: Ailís Ní Ríain’s Watershed (2020) alongside Samuel Barber’s Hermit Songs (1953) composed on texts by medieval monks and poets writing about Lough Derg in Donegal. Their music in this performance is interwoven with poetry readings by Jessica Brown. The Watershed song cycle was made possible through funding received from the Arts Council Music Commissions Award in 2020. The Watershed CD, produced by Now and Then Media, was released in November 2021 and features the song cycle, poetry readings, and field recordings of soundscapes along and near Lough Derg in County Clare.