Deirdre Gribbin: Before the Moon Shattered and Shone Again [2021]

Deirdre Gribbin [1967]
Before the Moon Shattered and Shone Again [2021]

Performed by the Ora Quartet
Triskel Christchurch, Cork, 11th October 2025

To the Celts, time was circular rather than linear this is reflected in their commencing each day, and each festival, at dusk rather than dawn. In Irish mythology, the prince Elathan was associated with stories about him arriving at night by sea on a silver boat suggestion a connection to the moon and manifestation as a moon god. The preoccupation with the night-time was also reflected in the Celtic year beginning with the festival of Samhain in October when nature appears to be dying down. Tellingly, the first month of the Celtic year is Samonios, ‘Seed Fall’: in other words, from death and darkness springs life and light. The earliest-known Celtic calendar is the Coligny calendar, now in the Palais des Arts in Lyon, France. It dates probably from the 1st century BC and is made up of bronze fragments, once a single huge plate. It is inscribed with Latin inscription capitals and numbers, but other characters are written in the Gaulish language. The circular bronze begins each month with the full moon.

Before the Moon Shattered and Shone Again was written during the period of extreme disruption due to the pandemic. Nature however remained constant, and the moon was a reassuring beacon. During this time, I connected deeply with the land, the past and my surroundings. Fragments of music are reinterpreted and woven through muted passages through foreground and background with sound ebbing and flowing transforming through chromatic coldness and then resting. The moon in this string quartet symbolises life waxing, waning, renewing and redefining.

Note by Deirdre Gribbin

Deirdre Gribbin was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

She was an award winner in the 2003 UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers with her work Empire States, and won a prestigious Arts Foundation Award for her first opera Hey Persephone! which had an acclaimed run at the Aldeburgh/Almeida Opera Festival.

Her music has been performed worldwide including The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, UKwithNY Festival featured in The New York Times and The National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland.

She works extensively with theatre, film and dance. The Dark Gene featuring her music collaboration with scientist Sarah Teichmann was a finalist in the 2016 Berlinale Film Festival. She has written music for British Academy award-winning film My Kingdom starring Richard Harris as well as a number of commissions for BBC Radio 3 with director Lou Stein. She is a Fulbirght, Churchill and Leverhulme Fellow and has presented her music and science research at the EU Innovations Festival 2015. She has been developing music-based motivational healthcare apps in association with Holland Bloorview Kids Hospital, Toronto, Canada. She is artistic director of Venus Blazing Music Theatre Trust develoing programmes for young people with learning disabilities.

Commissions include works for National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, The Ulster Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia and performances by the London Philharmonia (Music of Today series at The Royal Festival Hall) and pianist Imogen Cooper and Venus Blazing which will tour the UK in the Spring 2005 with violinist Ernst Kovacic, Britten Sinfonia conducted by Pierre Andre, with lighting by Bruce Springsteen's lighting designer Jeff Ravitz and directed by Lou Stein.

Find more Irish string quartet at https://nsqf.ie/icsqa