Music inspired by ancient monuments

Under the title of A Beam of Light the winter solstice was celebrated in the Lane Gallery recently by the performance of eleven pieces by Michael Holohan. Most of these were inspired by the ancient monuments of the Boyne valley, where he now lives, and the archaeological background was set in a short address by Professor George Eogan, who referred to the aeons before the building of the megalithic tombs, to the 2,000 years which elapsed before the period of the Bronze Age horns used by Holohan, and to the continuing importance of the Newgrange complex in the Irish imagination. In his struggle to forge an individual language Holohan is nothing if not eclectic. The Source (1990), for taped percussion and two dancers, mingled African rhythms and Isadora Duncan-style movements with rather incongruous results. The choral works - Solstice (1993), Newgrange (1997), Winter in Meath (1997), Dowth (1997) - owed something to the period of transition between plainchant and chordal music. The last three were premieres and, compared with Solstice, seem ed to be aiming at a greater simplicity.

Totally different was the setting of "He shall not hear the bittern cry" for soprano, cor anglais and piano, which was in the manner of Warlock's The Curlew. This piece was certainly effective but, to my mind, it calls out for an extended instrumental postlude, which it did not get.

By a River (1988) and By the Brook (1994), both for solo piano, were unremarkable pieces in the genre suggested by the titles. Spalpann an Ghrian (1988) was a reading of George Russell's visionary visit to Bru na Boinne, backed by a choir on tape, and it introduced The Dream of Aenghus (1997), for soprano, crotal, bronze age horns, flute, uilleann pipes, violins, percussion and concertina. This combination was the most successful in suggesting a "primitive" world, but the strong associations with recent Irish folk music of pipes, flute, violin and concertina tended to evoke a very un-megalithic picture. Macehead (1992, rev. 1997) made more striking use of the horns and was much more rhythmically alive. For horns, pipes, concertina and a large percussion section, it expressed not only the enthusiasm of the composer for the ceremonial artefact found at Knowth, but also the musicality and dedication of all the performers who came from Drogheda to stage this concert.

Abbaesque, the Abba tribute band, who play with the Bootleg Beatles in the New Year's Eve Party at 8 p.m. tomorrow in the Point.