MA student Jacqueline Corr writes about Bernadette Comac

A guest post from Jacqueline Corr, who is currently undertaking an MA in Performance and Musicology at Maynooth University.

Comac In Context

Bernadette Comac is a digital composer and artist who has made a significant contribution to the field of electronic music in Ireland. Originally from Northern Ireland, Comac comes from a musical background involving Irish traditional music. While studying music at Queen’s University Belfast, she began to specialise in electronic music composition. Since then, her compositional career has been characterised by innovative choices leading to musical breakthroughs, which place her work at the forefront of this field of composition. As such, Comac is an extremely important figure to consider when examining electronic music in Ireland.

Interviewing Bernadette Comac

During my time researching Bernadette Comac and her work within the field of composition I had the privilege of speaking with Comac about her experience and compositional process. We discussed topics such as elements of her work, some of the compositional techniques she has employed during her career, and her perspective on the current barriers and opportunities available for women composing on the island of Ireland. Comac offered her perspective on current issues for women in the field and how this is compounded by the lack of categorisation that is often applied to electronic music composition. Aspects of electronic composition, such as its technological medium and non-conventional scores, make it difficult to document and accurately arrange the pieces emerging from this vein of composition. This categorisation barrier, in addition to more overt instances of inequality such as the gender imbalance within electronic music composition, are two examples of the boundaries that were pushed by Comac in the creation of her electronic musical works.

Comac's The Virtual Performer (2012) is just one example of the way in which women have advanced the modes of thinking, creativity and the medium through which electronic music can be delivered. This work incorporates the use of visual technologies that project a 3D figure to a moveable figure-like structure that act as a portable performance. Inspired by the use of virtual assistants, Comac took the idea and created an immensely new, progressive way of experiencing vocal works. In her programme notes to the piece, Comac expresses her desire to extend the possibilities available when considering virtual performance: 

I was immediately struck by the possibilities of using something similar to present a vocal work. I am excited about the potential for virtual performance and I imagine downloading holographic performances would be a matter of course.

This treatment of visuals demonstrates Comac’s extensive creative ability and innovative thought processes that led her to produce to an incredible work that was included in two festivals, the Sonorities Festival and the Béal Festival, as a sound installation. You can listen to The Virtual Performer on SoundCloud.

In our interview, we also discussed Comac’s work on the mobile, computerised singer and she expressed the great curiosity she has toward the possibilities of technology. Comac described her collaboration with the singer involved in the project The Virtual Performer as an amazing opportunity to work with such an extensive vocal range and ability. Certain compositional techniques Comac utilises revolve around an affinity that Comac holds towards immersive experiences involving brand new technologies. She has used contemporary mechanisms to deliver her musical pieces, including structures such as Telephone boxes, mobile computerised singers and ultrasonic speakers. When speaking about her interests in cultivating source sounds, Comac expressed interest in both ASMR and Foley Art which speak to the level of thought Comac puts toward the intended effect of the sounds used throughout her musical work.

We Walk with Ghosts (1996) is another fascinating piece by Bernadette Comac which was premiered in the Harty Room at Queen’s University Belfast the year it was composed. This is another instance of Comac being at the forefront of representation for women in Ireland involved in electronic music composition, with this piece being one of very few pieces currently on record released by women in Ireland during the 1990s. Written for tape, this piece utilises vocal recordings of breath and speech against the backdrop of detailed electronically produced and manipulated gestures. The Irish language is also featured within this piece through the medium of the female voice reading a poetic passage. During our conversation, Comac explained to me that this use of the language came in the form of her utilising a poem written in Irish to function as a script for the voice. 

One of the main attributes of this piece is the treatment of the vocal recordings, as the voice in this piece acts as an auditory realisation of the act of walking among ghosts. Another characteristic of this work is that the composer utilises the stereo field to its fullest, making it an extremely spacious piece for the synthetic sounds she has created to breathe. Through the use of panning, Comac has evoked a sense of movement which gives the impression that the different elements of the soundscape, such as the voices, are shifting around. The addition of panning in this instance creates an eerie landscape that speaks to the supernatural and portrays a sense of what it may feel like to be in the presence of spirits.

Spanning over 8 minutes, We Walk with Ghosts takes the listener on a journey to discover what it may sound like to be in the presence of spirits of Irish descendants. The piece opens by taking advantage of the stereo field, allowing a breath-filled tension to surround the listeners' ears. The use of traditional Irish instruments can also be heard about half-way through the piece. Their dissonant entry vaguely alludes to the use of uilleann pipes and fiddle segments, which evokes a sense of the rich history of traditional Irish music. Around the six minute mark, discordant cries are introduced, which allows listeners to get an aural glimpse of the use of the Irish language. Overall, this piece illustrates Comac's impressive skillset, which has allowed her to depict the uncanny apparitions of Irish history.

This early instance of electronic work in Comac’s output resonates with an idea she expressed during our conversation where she stated: 'I have always felt the need to use technology to explore sounds.' This idea speaks to the overall approach Comac takes toward composition as she pushes the boundaries of what technology can do for our ability to express ourselves musically.