Biography
Pàdruig Morrison completed his PhD under the supervision of Dr Ryan Molloy. His compositional work explores the confluence of Scottish traditional music and contemporary composition, and he has had works performed by the Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble, the ConTempo Quartet, the Rednote Ensemble, the Hebrides Ensemble and members of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.As a performer, his main instrument is the accordion, studying classical accordion with Djordje Gajic. In 2013 he was the first accordionist to reach the final of the Edinburgh Competition Festival concerto competition, performing Piazzolla’s Bandoneon Concerto on accordion with orchestra led by conductor David Watkin.
He graduated with a BMus from the University of Edinburgh, studying composition with Peter Nelson and Gareth Williams. He then went on to complete an MA in Composition from Maynooth University studying with Ryan Molloy and Martin O’Leary. In that year he was the winner of the Peter Rosser Composition Competition and the Maynooth University and SINFONIA composition competition.
Pàdruig grew up with a rich inheritance from the Gaelic oral tradition, as a native Gaelic speaker and traditional musician from Uist in the Outer Hebrides. He continues to be an active professional traditional musician, performing with Beinn Lee at many festival, and was a 2020 finalist in the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year. He also established a group, Causeway Trio, which combines traditional music with contemporary, jazz, and world influences, and were 2016 BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award Finalists. He has also written and recorded a number of soundtracks.
Research interests
- Contemporary composition
- Scottish traditional music
- The confluence of trad/folk music and ‘art music’
- Gaelic Psalm Singing
- Piobaireachd
- Presbyterianism and Gaelic musico-poetic culture
- Scottish Romanticism
Thesis title
‘Finding a Voice for Gaelic Art Music: a Compositional Approach for Contemporary Scotland’
Thesis abstract
The confluence of traditional music with contemporary composition is a field of limited discussion in Scotland. Recent discoveries have unearthed the pioneering compositional work of Erik Chisholm whose innovations in combining Scottish traditional music with contemporary techniques are the most fastidious and ambitious in the field to date. Building on the research of John Purser, which traces the developments of both traditional and classical music until the end of the twentieth century, it may be seen that a bifurcation occurred in Scotland after the second world war. In reactionary to the Scottish style of Chisholm, many composers in an increasingly cosmopolitanised Scotland turned towards a style that was European focused. As this research shows, since 1980 however, a compositional trend which takes considerable influence from traditional music has emerged.Devices such as Piobaireachd, Gaelic Psalm Singing, and ornamentation have been adopted by composers but the success and depth of stylistic integration achieved to date is limited. This integration will be considered and compositionally developed with critical autoethnographic awareness of the stylistic confluence embodied by a contemporary composer who is also a professional traditional musician. The new compositional approach of the original works accompanying this thesis will be an informed development of tradition and contemporary art, bringing together the two musical disciplines in a new way, with an analytically and autoethnographically informed compositional voice.
Professional development/experience
Teaching Assistant for undergraduate course: ’Introduction to Composition’, involving giving a lecture, leading tutorials, and marking assessments.
Private instrumental tutor for 8 years.
Publications
Presentations:
‘Finding a Voice for Gaelic Art Music: Scottish Contemporary Composition and the influence of Traditional Music’ (The Motherland Resurrected: Manifestations of Nationalism in Music Since the End of the ‘Short Twentieth Century’, University of Cambridge (Zoom), 22.07.21.
Compositions/performances:
Sealladh a Tuath, for piano quintet. Premiered 25.04.19 by the ConTempo Quartet with pianist Aileen Cahill.
Overseas was written in collaboration with, and performed by, pianist and Masters of Performance student Hui Han Lui, and premiered 14.03.19.
Caoin Leth Challtach, for Flute, Bb Clarinet, Violin, Violoncello and Piano. Premiered 13.04.19 by the Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble at the 2019 Peter Rosser Composition Competition, Belfast.
Làn Dhuer, for Mezzo- Soprano, Bb Clarinet, Accordion, Violin and Violoncello. Premiered 26.09.19, by the Hebrides Ensemble at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
An Tàillear anns an Eaglais Tathaichte, for baritone, clarinet, trumpet and trombone. Premiered 12.04.20 by the Loadbang Ensemble, Maynooth University.
Lament for the Bird's Dance in the Sea, for solo harp. Premiered 28.11.19 by Clíona Doris, Farmleigh Music and Arts Festival, Farmleigh House.
Fragile Distance. Premiered 10.04.20 by Tom Hunter of the Red Note Ensemble, in Digital Noisy Night no. 1.
Clò, for ensemble and tape. Premiered 05.12.20 by the Glasgow Improviser’s Orchestra, for Ceòl is Craic’s ‘Ocaidich / Improvise!’ virtual concert.
Sileán na Carraige, for piano four hands.
Anail dhan Chluas, for accordion and saxophone.
Fead na Feadaig, for wind quintet.
Ceòl na Talmhain, for solo piano.
Òran an Ròin, for baritone and piano.
Awards & scholarships
John and Pat Hume Doctoral Scholarship
Memberships of professional bodies
Scottish Music Centre
New Music Scotland
The Ivors Academy of Music Creators
Contact details
[email protected]
www.padruigmorrison.weebly.com
Twitter @PadruigMorrison
Biography
Conor completed his PhD in Musicology under the supervision of Prof. Christopher Morris. His thesis investigates the links between the American and heroic idioms in the popular film scores of John Williams. He has completed both a BMus (First Class Honours) and Masters in Musicology at Maynooth. His undergraduate dissertation “Williams and Wagner: The Leitmotif from Valhalla to a Galaxy Far, Far Away”, and Master’s thesis “Building a Past: Music and Nostalgia in the Star Wars sequels” investigated the use of leitmotif and musical nostalgia in John Williams’s Star Wars scores. As well as musicological research Conor teaches piano both privately and at the Lucan School of Music, and has received a Gold Medal for his Advanced Recital Certificate from the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
Research Interests:
- Film music studies
- John Williams
- Hans Zimmer
- Music semiotics
- Popular music
- Music and gender
- Music and sexuality
- Piano pedagogy
- Music in late nineteenth and early twentieth century
Thesis
Conor’s research focusses on the heroic idiom in the popular film scores of John Williams. Through tracing the development of the heroic and militaristic topics in Western art music, and the development of American art music in the early twentieth century, his thesis investigates the universalisation of an American-heroic idiom in Hollywood. The sound of Williams’s music is widely-recognized as adapting and borrowing the popular codes and styles of classical Hollywood, and late European romanticism. Less acknowledged, is the extent to which Williams continues the legacy of his American forebears – namely Aaron Copland. The wide-open sonorities of Copland’s self-imposed simplicity style have been associated with images of the American prairie since his popular ballets of the 1940s, and Hollywood westerns of the 1950s; and his famous Fanfare for the Common Man is an obvious influence on many similar works in cinema. By foregrounding the influence of Copland’s style on Williams, this research demonstrates that the music of Hollywood heroes is associated with the trappings of American ideologies of heroism. Williams has scored many of cinemas most recognised heroes (Indiana Jones, Luke Skywalker, Superman, Harry Potter) as well as numerous American icons (Lincoln, JFK, and soldiers of World War 2 and Vietnam) both of which are narratively treated as idealised saviours. By examining these popular themes the gendered and nationalist facets of Williams’s style will be established, and shown to echo both the latent beliefs of his European and American antecedents, and Hollywood’s troubled relationship with gender and racial equality. Given Williams’s position as one of the most preeminent film composers, his influence on his successors, and the persistent presence of his themes in contemporary film culture, these biased musical idioms have proliferated to the point where they have become the accepted norm of film music. Through a look at music semantics, style topics, historical trends, and case studies of popular film scores, this issue, and its effect on the audience’s perspective, will be investigated.
Professional Experience
Conor has led tutorials on introductions to classical music, lectured on post-classical Hollywood scoring practices, and tutors over 40 piano students.
Presentations
‘Gender Coding in Scores of John Williams’ (XIII Simposio: La Creación Musical en la Banda Sonora, University of Oviedo, June 2021).
‘Gender Coding in Scores of John Williams’ (SMI/ICTM-IE Joint Plenary Conference, Trinity College Dublin, May 2021).
‘Hymn to the Fallen: Constructing American Values in Saving Private’ (British Audio-Virtual Research Network Virtual Colloquia Series, February 25th 2021).
‘Hymn to the Fallen: Constructing American Values in Saving Private’ (BFE/RMA Students’ Conference 2021, University of Cambridge, January 12th 2021).
‘Hymn to the Fallen: Constructing American Values in Saving Private Ryan’ (SMI/ICTM-IE Joint Plenary Conference, University College Dublin, October 31st 2020).
Scholarships
Maynooth University’s Taught Masters Scholarship
Maynooth University’s John Hume Doctoral Scholarship
Contact Details:
[email protected]
