"Is this ‘Thing’ On?": The World According to Donal Sarsfield

 

 

Herewith below be punched out the biography of the Irish composer Donal Sarsfield, composer of many works of sound art, many myriad works of sound art, of music which ‘sounds’ inanimate objects, which samples or ‘sounds’ sounding things:

 

 

BIOGRAPHY

 

SHOUTY BIO VERSION! BALLYHEANE, NOT CASTLEBAR! MY IRISH MOLLY! PIANO LESSONS FOR SIX MONTHS! MY FATHER DRIVING ME ACROSS BACK ROADS TO DRUM LESSONS LISTENING TO MID WEST RADIO! PARADIDDLES! COVER BANDS! CHOPIN WALTZ IN A FLAT! PLAYING RAVELS BOLERO AS A GUITAR SOLO FOR MY LEAVING CERTIFICATE PRACTICAL EXAM! THE BARRY! MUSIC AT QUEENS! FAILING MY GRADE 6 SNARE DRUM PRACTICAL EXAM WHILE WEARING A MECHANICAL METRONOME (NOW LOST) IN MY HAT! JOINING A CHOIR AND SITTING IN THE WOMENS SECTION! PERFORMING 3RD PERCUSSION IN MAHLER 4 AND GETTING IT WRONG! SITTING IN PIERS HELLAWELLS COMPOSITION CLASS! STRAVINSKY! JEFF BUCKLEY! FIRST PERFORMANCE OF NAIVE PIECE BY CONCORDE IN DUBLIN 2001! "SAUNTERS THROUGH IDEAS"! TRYING TO BE A JAZZ PIANIST! FAILING! WRITING SCORES BY HAND WITH SOME SYSTEM BASED ON HARMONIC LATTICES! FALL IN LOVE WITH HARMONIC LATTICES! MASTERS IN MANCHESTER! PRACTICALITY BEATEN INTO ME! WORKING IN A STUDIO! RECORDING SOUNDS! YOUNG COMPOSERS COLLECTIVE! LEARNING TO SING LIKE RUFUS WAINWRIGHT! LORRAINE HUNT LIEBERSON! DIRECTOR OF CASTLEBAR GOSPEL CHOIR! MEMBER OF CÓR MHAIGH EO! MORE PERFORMANCES HERE AND THERE! PERFORM SOLO CONCERT IN CASTLEBAR ON THE THEME ON LONGING, PERFORMING SCHUBERT, RICHARD RODGERS, WAINWRIGHT! PHD AT MANCHESTER! RECORDING, TRANSFORMING AND ORGANISING MORE SOUNDS! SOME COURSES HERE AND THERE! ALDEBURGH, APELDOORN, DARTINGTON, DARMSTADT. CONSTANT ANXIETY ABOUT MONEY! CONSTANT ANXIETY ABOUT NOT WRITING! CONSTANT ANXIETY! INABILITY TO GO TO A TOILET WITHOUT ACTIVATING THE HAND DRIER! COVERING MY EARS! ALMOST PASSING OUT SINGING BRAHMS REQUIEM! SENDING OFF APPLICATIONS! REJECTIONS! MISERY AT LOOKING AT OTHER PEOPLES UNMISERY! THE DOORS PIECE! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That torrent out of our system, now for a little puddle of sobriety. Among Donal’s compositions are The Suitcases Piece – which in 2011 won first prize in the prestigious Luigi Russolo International Sound Art Competition and which is linked above for yr ear-erotics – and The Doors Piece – which I decided to talk to Donal about when by telephone prearrangement I met him on a park bench in Birmingham.

 

The Doors Piece is a piece made of door-sounds.

 

The Doors Piece was constructed using recorded samples of the sound of doors opening and closing, slamming and creaking, creaking and through this speaking, door-sounds which, as with many such everyday sounds, you ignore every day, but which Donal here makes come back to haunt you – those humble everyday doors which remain as habitually unheard as the proverbial ‘tree falling in the woods in a far-off country you’ll never visit (though you’ve heard it’s lovely)’ – doors which are, indeed, in all likelihood made out of that very same tree.

 

As the two of us sat watching a pigeon shitting on some passersby in a park in Birmingham, Donal told me, in response to my abstruse, Dave Fanning-esque, longwinded, pretentious questions: ‘I am only interested in what something sounds like.‘

 

Still I persisted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colony: Is the discrepancy between a sound’s source and the listener’s imagination something you intentionally explore in your art? For example, although The Doors Piece is comprised in a large part of the sound of doors swinging open and slamming shut, to me, especially during the first minute or so, that often sounds like wings flapping. 

 

Donal: No. 

 

Colony: Fair enough, then. At least tell me about how The Doors Piece was made and where the idea came from.

 

Donal: The Doors Piece is the last in a body of works completed for my PhD in composition where the focus is on a specific sound source or person. The concept for each piece acts as the 'key in the ignition', it provides both a constraint and focus to the act of recording. The idea of the subject dissolves in the daily grind of composition when the actuality of working concretely with the sound takes over and the process of repeated listening induces a sort of prolonged contemplation of the potential of the material. 

 

I preferred to use sounds that were everywhere heard but seldom noticed; clapping, suitcases, or in this instance, door sounds. Once recorded the sounds themselves dictate a number of compositional decisions. For example, I wanted to keep the majority of the sounds untransformed which meant I had to find a way of dealing with a large number of similar types of sounds: creaks, closing doors and high melodic squeaks which I called 'doorbirds'. To highlight the sonic properties of a sound, it must be treated differently than if it were to be used metaphorically. The sounds of doors do not, for example, ‘open’ or ‘close’ parts of The Doors Piece. The pattern of door attacks which appear at the start of that piece are shaped into a rhythm which to my ear would not be out of place played on percussion. In the piece repetition is used to explore the differences between similar sounds. For example, when presented with eight individual attacks in rapid succession you start to listen past the identity of the sound, and focus instead on the intrinsic properties of the signal (for example, the morphology, spectral density, amplitude, or position in the stereo field). Which is just my way of saying: WAKE UP: THERE IS A DOOR NEAR YOU THAT SOUNDS BETTER THAN ANYTHING YOU COULD HAVE IMAGINED. 

 

Colony: The man’s voice which comes in now and again in The Doors Piece is enigmatic, as if the piece’s hidden conductor let out a cry every now and again. Does this man’s voice have a particular role within the piece?

 

Donal: The man's voice acts as a conductor of sorts – he tries to subtly cajole all the other sounds to follow his lead but fails. However his vocalisations are immaculately articulated; all the other sounds fail to match his articulation. 

 

Colony: Is there something inherently subversive about an art that grabs hold of the sounds that surround us – the creak of a door opening, an aeroplane passing overhead, the dragging of a suitcase – and makes them strange?

 

Donal: No. What I do is less about subverting the meaning of a sound than exploring the potential of listening. I simply want people to listen. 

 

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At this Donal abruptly got to his feet and left. I sat on in the park on my own till the sky turned red and I was told to leave, hearing the horrid clank of the metal gate jeering me as, head bowed, I left.