"I first performed Philip Hammond’s music when I was 15 years of age, in the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition – and I have been playing it ever since. I greatly admire his very personal and pianistic style. After having given premiere performances of many of these Miniatures and Modulations, I was delighted to subsequently make this first recording of the entire collection. The juxtaposition of the simple Bunting miniatures with the more complex and searching ‘modulations’ gives the album a unique structure and a beguiling ebb and flow – I very much enjoyed recording all of these musical gems, and I hope they will provide the listener with as much enjoyment!" – Michael McHale

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The Belfast Harp Festival of 1792 was an event of great significance in the history of Irish music. Edward Bunting, then nineteen, was engaged to annotate all the music he heard, and his three volumes of The Ancient Music of Ireland provide a treasure trove of over 300 bardic tunes and their attributions. Philip Hammond has taken a selection of these tunes and approached them with complete freedom of style. Bunting’s arrangement is the ‘Miniature’ and Hammond’s is the ‘Modulation’.

Belfast-born Philip Hammond’s career has encompassed teaching, performing and writing. As a composer, he has been regularly commissioned by individuals and groups in Ireland and in Britain such as the Ulster Orchestra, the contemporary ensemble Lontano, the Brodsky String Quartet, James Galway, Sarah Walker, Suzanne Murphy, Tasmin Little, Barry Douglas, Nikolai Demidenko and Ann Murray. He is often commissioned as an “occasional” composer. Some of his commissioned works for special occasions include his Waterfront Fanfares (1997); ...the starry dynamo in the machinery of night... (2001); Carnavalesque for Double Orchestra and Percussion (2003); and ...while the sun shines (2005) as well as his Requiem for the Lost Souls of the Titanic for choruses and brass, which was premiered in April 2012 on the exact hundredth anniversary of the ship’s demise.

MINIATURES & MODULATIONS

1 Charles MacHugh – The Wild Boy (No. 69, Vol. Three) *
2 Kiss Me Lady (No. 47, Vol. Three) *
3 The Little and Great Mountain (No. 63, Vol. One) *
4 Rose Dillon (Jigg) (No. 24, Vol. One) * **
5 Old Truagh (No. 11, Vol. One) *
6 Molly My Treasure (No. 62, Vol. Three) *
7 John O’Reilly The Active (No. 49, Vol. One)
8 Have You Seen My Valentine? (No. 57, Vol. One) *
9 The Merchant’s Daughter (No. 5, Vol. Three) *
10 Kitty Tyrell (No. 8, Vol. One) *
11 The Blackbird (No. 98, Vol. Three) *
12 Young Terence McDonough (No. 55, Vol. One) * **
13 Planxty McGuire (No. 64, Vol. One) * **
14 The Parting of Friends (No. 14, Vol. One) *
15 An Irish Lullaby (No. 50, Vol. One) *

16 Open The Door Softly (No. 15, Vol. One) *
17 The Lamentation of Owen O’Neil (No. 52, Vol. One) * **
18 The Ugly Tailor (No. 26, Vol. One) *
19 Granu Weal (No. 46, Vol. Three) *
20 The Fair Woman (No. 23, Vol. One) *
21 The Beardless Boy (No. 9, Vol. One)

TOTAL TIME: 76:50

Listen to an excerpt from
Miniatures and Modulations: The Beardless Boy

Belfast-born Michael McHale has established himself as one of the leading Irish pianists of his generation.

Since completing his studies at Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music he has developed a busy international career as a solo recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician. Michael has performed at many important musical centres including Suntory Hall, Tokyo, Lincoln Center, New York, Symphony Hall, Boston, Konzerthaus, Berlin, Pesti Vigadó, Budapest, and the Ushuaia and Tanglewood Festivals, and for TV and radio broadcasts throughout Europe, Asia, North and South America.

His début solo album ‘The Irish Piano’ was released in 2012 on the RTÉ lyric fm label and has already been featured on national radio in France, Austria, Canada, Australia, the USA, Italy, Estonia and the UK. The recording was selected as ‘CD of the Week’ by critic Norman Lebrecht, who described it as “a scintillating recital… fascinating from start to stop”, whilst Gramophone praised “the singing sensibility of McHale‘s sensitive and polished pianism”.