Nadia Sirota Tessellatum 1 by Shervin Lainez

Nadia Sirota Tessellatum 2 by Shervin Lainez

Donnacha Dennehy: Tessellatum

“Tessellatum was commissioned in an acute fit of jealousy. The first time I heard Donnacha Dennehy’s music I was seduced, I needed to be a part of that sound world, to inhabit it, even.”
Nadia Sirota

Donnacha Dennehy’s groundbreaking work for viola and microtonal viola da gamba consort, performed by violist Nadia Sirota and viola da gamba player Liam Byrne featuring animation by Steven Mertens.

The film and the music both work with the idea of man vs. nature. Steven Mertens’ dazzling animation toggles back and forth between man-made geometric perfection and the natural oddness of the deep ocean. Donnacha Dennehy’s addictive timbres move between tuning systems created by humans and the ones found in natural resonance. As a result, the two works of art support and enhance each other, using the same form and structure to create an incredibly moving work of art.

Nadia Sirota Tessellatum 3 by Shervin Lainez

“I am obsessed with luminosity in music. It influences most of my decisions: about harmony and timbre, process and even form. An abiding influence on the way I thought about luminosity in this piece comes from the way the light changes radically through the seasons in Ireland. Despite living with this perennially until quite recently, this never ceased to fascinate me.”
(Donnacha Dennehy)