Seagull is a one-movement work for solo
piano, inspired by a poem of the same title by Chris Agee. A central fast
moving section is framed by a slow shimmery introduction and a delicate finale,
its lyrical line reflecting the image of the lone gull facing seawards.
Irish pianist Isabelle O’Connell gave it’s New York premiere at the Carnegie
Hall as well as featuring the piece on her solo New Zealand tour in 2011.
Dublin choreographer and dancer Fiona Quilligan included
Seagull in the sound score of her new show at the Project Arts
Centre in Dublin Pas De Chat. The score is published by the
Contemporary Music Centre.
Anthony Aibel, New York Concert
Review: New Music, New Ireland, New York 14
October 2007
“The program opened with Isabelle O’Connell performing impressively in
Elaine Agnew’s solo piano work, Seagull, composed in 2005.
This dramatic work explored the keyboard’s range with raw excitement. It is an
excellent work for the piano that shows a high level of craftsmanship. Ms.
O’Connell’s commitment to the work was in evidence, and she was riveting
throughout the performance”
Where lichen daubs a spit of sea-rocks with the gold of goldenrod,
undersides of fungi, or sea-clumps of pallid algae:
where the slow swell girds the dreadlocks of bladderwrack in shallows of sea-brown and sea-green:
where sea-turf and primroses face a salt lough and the tongue’s foreshore meets the sea’s Word:
the common gull stands sentinel for the shofar of a muffled foghorn.
Chris Agee (from In
The New Hampshire Woods)
