A two-part tribute to the late James Wilson will be broadcast on RTÉ lyric fm’s Horizons programme in October.

Wilson spent his life mapping and remapping his understanding of the magical power of art. In a long career he influenced literally hundreds of musicians through his music, as well as through his work as Professor at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, his directorship of the Ennis/IMRO Composition Summer School and as a founding member of Aosdána.

If this be magick..., Horizon’s two-part tribute, refers to the quote on the composer’s web page on the this site: “Music is the nearest thing we know to magic: its powers have still to be understood...”.

In his eighties, Wilson had continued to compose music whose energy and elaboration showed no signs of slackening. If there were changes, they had been in the direction of greater lyricism (the vocal works) and a further refinement of that playfulness that was often at the heart of his purely instrumental ‘dramas’. Wilson was working on his eighth opera when he died on August 6th. He was 82.

In this two-part tribute, Bernard Clarke profiles and celebrates Wilson’s rich legacy. He talks to just a few of the many people influenced by Wilson. We hear Wilson at different parts of his career in interviews; Wilson on music genres, on his love of word setting and poetry and much of his music.

The Horizons tributes will be broadcast on RTÉ lyric fm on Sunday 2 and Sunday 9 October 2005, 9.30pm-10.00pm.

Posted: 15 September 2005