COMPOSITION PORTFOLIO
​Browse examples of original compositions including traditional dance tunes and airs, music for screen, multimedia installations, and educational resources.
Cnámha Scoilte (2025)
Live Sound Design & Concertina by Jack Talty
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Performed to poetry, written and read by Julie Breathnach-Banwait
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Songs by Síle Denvir
Performed at Smock Alley, Dublin for Féile Imram 2025 on 19/11/2025
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In Imeacht na mBlianta (2024)
Music for The Time Machine, an installation by Cracking Light Productions.​
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The original music featured in the Time Machine Project, In Imeacht na mBlianta offers a musical homage to the renowned Miltown Malbay uilleann piper, Willie Clancy, while simultaneously speculating on future avenues of exploration within the idiom of Irish Traditional Music, “from the inside out”. Not only does the piece honour the past while imagining one interpretation of the future, it attempts to explore the musical commonalities that unify both.
The first section of the piece opens with a concertina drone that strives to mimic the familiar grounding qualities of uilleann pipe drones. We are then introduced to a reel melody that resonates with the modality of many of the most prominent dance tunes associated with Clancy. As we move through time in section two, the music gradually evolves to incorporate elements of Minimalist composition that draws significantly on the musical fragments already present within the traditional material.
A level of introspection encourages us to look within the tune for artistic inspiration rather than rely on a fusion of external musical stimuli. The title of the piece translates loosely as “in the passing of years”, in reference to the time-based focus of the project, but it can also be interpreted as “through time” (the Ancient Greek origins of the word, diachronic, a useful conceptual lens that offers a way to explore how phenomena (invariably language) evolve over time). Another play on “through time” acknowledges the ways in which the third section of the piece begins to polymetrically “play with time”. A reel and jig co-exist while repeating patterns of irregular melodic phrases contribute to an unusual but somehow familiar sense of intensity and otherworldliness. Rather than create a dichotomy between past and present, or tradition and innovation, In Imeacht na mBlianta celebrates the timeless centrality of the melody (and its many internal idiomatic characteristics) in imagining additional future soundworlds for Irish Traditional Music.
Visioning (2024)
A Film by Jack Talty and Dan O'Connell
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Visioning reflects on the potentially transformative impacts of reappraising our relationship with the familiar. The work, which includes Sightings, a poem written and read by Irish poet, Jane Clarke, celebrates the beauty and uniqueness of the Burren landscape while encouraging us to appreciate the fragility of our local environments. The piece opens with music and imagery that feel known to us. We then enter a liminal space that encounters anti-structure and uncertainty, but ultimately offers a portal to new possibilities. In the words of Victor Turner, we are “betwixt and between.” This period of instability resolves to take us to a post-liminal state that invites a renewed connection with the frequently undervalued ‘structure’ or fabric of our everyday lives, the profoundly distinctive and special places that we are fortunate to inhabit daily.
A contemplation on the Aisling tradition, the film presents a vision or visioning (if we consider both observation and a desire to inspire change) of what a sustained commitment to our environment can achieve for successive generations. Visioning celebrates what we have, but cautions against complacency.
The work also explores the artistic impetus emanating from the Otherworld, and the centrality of the hare in Irish mythology. Inspired by the concept of the Hare’s Corner, the final section of the film introduces Treo na Tairsí (translated loosely as ‘the way of the portal or threshold’), a piece of music for concertina, clarinet, and string ensemble. The Hare’s Corner refers to that piece of rough land that was traditionally seen as awkward to farm and consequently left to nature, thereby promoting biodiversity and transformation. In addition to the numerous practical benefits that this contributes to the natural world, the Hare’s Corner is also explored here as a rich conceptual metaphor for creativity and artistic expression, a place in which we strive to foster moments of transformation and possibility.
Visioning was commissioned by Burrenbeo Trust as part of their Turas - Journeys in Stewardship Project, and funded by Creative Ireland’s Creative Climate Action Fund.
Cinematography & Editing by Dan O’Connell
Music Composed by Jack Talty
Featuring:
Jack Talty: Concertina & Sound Design
Neil Ó Lochlainn: Double Bass
Úna Nic Lochlainn: Violins, Viola, Cello & Guitar
Matthew Berrill: Clarinet & Bass Clarinet
Sightings written and read by Jane Clarke
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Across to Feenagh (2022)
A slow air composed in memory of my neighbour and exceptional concertina player, Gerald Haugh, of Feenagh, Lissycasey.​​​​​
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Pictured L-R
Jack, Gerald & Noel Hill
Duala (2020)
A Film by Jack Talty and Maurice Gunning
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Duala originated from a Creator-in-Residence scheme offered by ITMA and Clare Arts Office in 2018. Applicants were given the opportunity to reflect and respond creatively to collections and materials of relevance or reference County Clare held in ITMA. Drawing on the concept of place as creative impetus, the piece explores the ways in which memory and landscape influence identity-formation. Although a universal and global phenomenon, Duala explores and expresses local place and identity through the prism of Irish traditional music and song, combining archival footage of music and musicians from County Clare with interweaving original music and videography.
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Original Compositions Recorded on Stargazer by Ensemble Ériu (2017)
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​​A Summer's Evening
An Pictiúr Álainn
The Balladeer
Fear an Bhogha
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“Ensemble Ériu have achieved what is never easy to do: to write new ensemble music that comes out of the Irish solo tradition.”
Toner Quinn, The Journal of Music
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“Though firmly rooted in the Irish tradition, O’Loclainn’s and Talty’s through-composed pieces draw on elements of serialism, minimalism and African blues, as well as contemporary jazz and improv, creating a numinous, mysterious sound world that is at times spine-tingling, at others ineffably melancholic.”
The Irish Times
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“Inspired by the expressionist paintings of Jack Butler Yeats, Stargazer positions Ensemble Ériu as one of the most articulate, imaginative and entertaining voices in contemporary Irish music.”
Songlines
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“The broad instrumental palette of the septet allows plenty of colourful combinations, endless permutations, exquisite harmonies and subtle counterpoints.”
Spellbinding Music
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Essential 10 Irish Albums of the Decade
Songlines
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Original Compositions Recorded on In Flow (2016)​​​
​​Stephen's Waltz​
The Wily Willow
The Trip to Girona & The Night of the Feast
The Ballygriffin Hornpipe
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"Full of gorgeous melodies and ear-catching atmospherics"
Jim Carroll, The Irish Times.
​“In Flow is just majestic. The man is a genius”
Mike Harding
"dynamic, decorative and elegantly expressive. He punctuates each note with a confidence that comes only from musicians steeped in the enactment of their musical heritage"
Songlines​
"Talty's playing appears to effortlessly slide through its sets, and his control is amazing – at times, he manages to make some notes ring out stronger, almost like a trombone punctuating a tune. But apart from the technical surety on the reels and jigs, I found the slow airs to be captivating....not to be missed by listeners who enjoy Irish music as a living, breathing art-form that both challenges and delights. In Flow shines like gold.
Lee Blackstone, RootsWorld
"a master of the slower tunes too: his interpretation of the air, Bóthar Cluain Meala, is deeply moving, and his own composition, Stephen's Waltz, is another highlight. This is not a brash young buck's recording: it is thoughtful and unhurried, but no less impressive for that".
Alex Monaghan, The Living Tradition
"The album title fits well, Jack Talty's execution is gently flowing like an undisturbed watercourse. He glides along with both technical prowess and soulful spirit"
Folkworld
"Rightly considered one of the major Anglo players in the music"
Roger Digby, The Concertina Journal
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