A Music Trail in Dublin's Temple Bar

Featuring composer interviews and sound clips, this special audio feature profiles the Contemporary Music Centre's 'Old City/New Music' outdoor sound installations. The project runs in CMC's own neighbourhood in Dublin's Temple Bar throughout June 2006, to celebrate the Centre's 20th anniversary.

The Contemporary Music Centre creates an outdoor music trail in the Old City area of Temple Bar, Dublin, throughout the month of June 2006. The three new pieces of music, by Irish composers Ailis Ní Ríain, Siobhán Cleary and Seán Taylor, have been specially commissioned by the Contemporary Music Centre in association with Temple Bar Cultural Trust’s 2006 Diversions Festival with funding from Dublin City Council.

Street Song by Ailis Ní Ríain, is a traditional keen from County Donegal, Caoineadh na Máthar, (the mother’s lament), and floods Fishamble Street as this ancient song is presented in a new way. Siobhán Cleary’s Eblana Civitas, a snapshot in sound of the history of the ‘Old City’, connects pastoral life with today’s urban living. Alignments by Seán Taylor is a contemporary sound world for CMC’s rear courtyard. This is next to the site of the 18th century Neal’s Music Hall where Handel’s Messiah was first performed, and one of the many local sources of inspiration.

These ‘sculptures in sound’ can be heard on the streets near the Contemporary Music Centre and in the Centre itself, making the link between its role as a technologically-advanced, modern music facility, and the historic district of Dublin in which it is located.

Follow our music trail during the month of June 2006 to experience this exciting soundworld, and finish by discovering the Contemporary Music Centre itself!

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