Tagcloud

abortion, admissions and discharges, alcohol, Alzheimer's disease, antibiotics, asthma, autism, bed shortages, blood, book review, breast cancer, Brendan Drumm, cancer, capacity, cardiology, cars, charity, children, CME, co-location, communications, competence assurance, consultants, cosmetic surgery, cross-border, cutbacks, Department of Health, diabetes, disability, drugs, e-health, education, elderly people, elective surgery, emergency medicine, ESRI, ethics, EWTD, exercise, falls, fitness to practice, Freedom of Information, funding, fundraising, General Election, general practice, genetics, GPs, Hanly report, health insurance, HIQA, HIV/AIDS, hospital beds, HPV, HSE, IBTS, ICGP, IHCA, IMO, industrial relations, influenza, Irish Healthcare Awards, Irish Medicines Board (IMB), IT, labs, locum, Mary Harney, maternity, ME, media, medical card, Medical Council, medical devices, medico-legal, mental health, MRSA, multiple sclerosis (MS), NCHDs, neurology, NHS, non-EU doctors, North East, Northern Ireland, NTPF, nurses, nursing homes, nutrition, obesity, obituary, organ donations, pandemic, pharmaceutical industry, pharmacists, politics, practice management, preventative healthcare, primary care, privatisation, prostate cancer, psychiatry, public health, quality and safety, RCSI, reconfiguration, recruitment, regional hospitals, research, schizophrenia, screening, sexual assault, skin cancer, smoking, spending, sport, stem cell research, STIs, stroke, suicide, surgery, training, travel, tropical medicine, tuberculosis, universal healthcare, vaccine, value for money, Vision for Change, waiting lists, whistleblowing, work-life balance

«Previous article | Next article»

Music and medicine meet in melodies

The worlds of medicine and music will meet with a performance next month in the National Concert Hall. Niamh Mullen reports

Music inspired by the composer’s experiences working in medicine will be performed next month at the National Concert Hall.

The New Sound Worlds series was curated by Irish composer Siobhán Cleary and will be performed in the Kevin Barry Room.

Cleary said the idea for the concert was prompted by consultant geriatrician Professor Des O’Neill, who introduced her to the works of Dr Eli-Paul Cohen, an eminent physician based in the UK. His work draws directly on his experiences as a doctor.

For example, Coma a piece of ‘music concrete work’, was inspired by the near-death experience of one of Dr Cohen’s patients. It uses human sounds such as breathing and heartbeats recorded from patients in a coma in intensive care and other sources such as oxygen and scopes in an emergency department.

Another of his compositions entitled Antenatal features foetal sounds recorded through an ultrasound scan, sounds of blood supply, of women whispering or shouting during delivery and newborn babies crying.

Dr Cohen is a French and a British citizen. He first studied piano, classical music and jazz and then spent time at the ‘Conservatoire National de Musique de Paris’ where he studied composition. In the late 1970s he began teaching music and worked in the music industry as a songwriter and artistic director at CBS record company.

In the 1980s he gave up music to study medicine in Paris. He qualified in 1989. Since 2000 he has been based in the UK.

Thirteen years ago he returned to music. Since then he has been involved in songwriting projects for (blues musician) Ray Charles and he has composed for the advertising and film industry.

“Historically there have been a few medical composers. Borodin was a doctor. It is not a usual combination though. They are such different disciplines,” said Cleary.
Alexander Borodin was a Russian composer, best known for his symphonies, two string quartets and his opera Prince Igor. He studied medicine and later pursued a career in chemistry.

The concert will also include a work by the retired Irish psychiatrist/composer Dr Derek Ball entitled ‘Xolotl’.

It features the voice of Gabriel Rosenstock, who will speak the part live on the night.
Dr Ball was born in Letterkenny and studied composition at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin.He was active as a composer in the 1970s and during that time his music was played by the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra.

He moved to Scotland in 1978. Retirement from medicine has allowed him to return to composing full-time. He was a featured composer in one of the 2009 ‘Horizons’ series of concerts, which took place in the National Concert Hall in February.
Dr Anthony Moffoot, a colleague of Dr Ball, will also perform.

Dubliner Cleary’s music has been performed and broadcast all over the world. She studied music at NUI Maynooth, Queen’s University in Belfast and Trinity College Dublin.

Her latest work Cokaygne, based on the first Irish poem written in English, Land of Cokaygne will also be performed next month in the National Concert Hall.

The New Sound Worlds concert takes place at 8.30pm in the Kevin Barry Room of the National Concert Hall on Tuesday, November 17. Tickets are E10.

Posted in Guests on 28 October 2009
Tags: