Dave Flynn [b.1977]
String Quartet No.2 - The Cranning [2004/2005]

Performed by the ConTempo Quartet
National Concert Hall, Dublin, September 26th 2021 (live audio recording with score)

1. ‘Slip’
2. ‘Slide’
3. ‘The Bamako Highland’
4. ‘Cran’

Score and parts available here

This piece is heavily influenced by the traditional music of my native Ireland. There are no traditional Irish melodies in the piece; however throughout the work's four movements there are techniques, modes, rhythms and feelings common to traditional Irish music. 

Donegal traditional music has a particularly strong influence on the piece. Donegal fiddlers often use a very attacking bowing technique, which creates a heavy, aggressive sound. This aggressiveness characterises much of the piece and is my way of demonstrating that there’s a lot more to Irish music than the saccharine ‘Celtic’ arrangements that have become synonymous with 'Irish' music in the classical music world.

The title ‘The Cranning’ refers to an ornamentation technique of the Uilleann Pipes, an instrument unique to Ireland. Cranning is used extensively in movement IV where the musicians repeatedly ‘cran’ on low D notes in poly-metric cycles. 

There are influences other than Irish traditional music in the piece; references to African, Balkan, Classical, Jazz and Rock music occur at various points but overall an Irish sound is dominant, particularly towards the end where the only notes used are the notes of Uilleann Pipe harmony regulators, A, B, C, D, F# and G.

After I won the 2004 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival Composers Prize for the first movement 'Slip', I was commissioned by Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival to extend the work into a full string quartet. The finished quartet was premiered by The Smith Quartet at the 2005 Festival. The Irish premiere was given by the Contempo Quartet, the Russian and French premieres by the Vanbrugh Quartet and the US Premiere by the New Juilliard Ensemble at MoMa Dave Flynn

Return to NSQF Irish Quartet Archive main page

 Celebrated by the New York Times for the “power and grittiness” of his music,  composer, conductor and guitarist Dave Flynn is a musician of international renown. Hailing from Dublin, Ireland, he redefined orchestral music by creating the cross-genre Irish Memory Orchestra: a “formidable collective of musicians” (The Irish Times)—and the first and only orchestra in the Western world to perform exclusively by memory.

Growing up with a love of classical music, Flynn has gone on to eschew easy definitions and form a signature all his own. Amalgamating orchestral, jazz, rock and folk elements with deft and deep understanding, his compositions have been performed by the likes of the Prague Chamber Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Crash Ensemble, New Juilliard Ensemble, Smith Quartet, New Zealand String Quartet, ConTempo Quartet, Vanbrugh Quartet, ConTempo Quartet, Dublin Guitar Quartet, Laura Snowden, Craig Ogden, John Feeley and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.

Published by Reed Music, Frisbee Publications, and Mel Bay (2020’s Complete Works for Solo Guitar), Flynn’s work is regularly featured by broadcasters around the world—including WNYC’s John Schaefer, who dedicated a special edition of New Sounds to Flynn’s work in 2009; and an extensive live interview to commemorate the US launch of his First Hand Records release Irish Minimalism in 2021.

Privileged to perform and record with some of the world’s best musicians across several genres, Dave Flynn has played at prestigious venues including MoMa (New York), Moscow Cathedral and Ireland’s National Concert Hall. Touring his acclaimed music worldwide, Flynn has performed in Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and all over Europe including Germany, the UK, Russia, Estonia, Romania, France, Sweden and the Czech Republic.

Flynn is a regular collaborator with renowned traditional Irish musicians including Martin Hayes, Liz Carroll, Paddy Glackin, Tommy Peoples, Mick O’Brien, and Máirtín O’Connor. In 2019 he became the first Composer-in-Residence at Ireland’s state guest-house Farmleigh and led the ground-breaking world premiere of The Vision Symphony by the Irish Memory Orchestra and 26 blind/vision-impaired musicians at the multi-disciplinary arts centre glór.