It's a Violin Thing with Ailbhe McDonagh

​Irish cellist Ailbhe McDonagh is an internationally recognised soloist, chamber musician, and recording artist. A published composer with Boosey & Hawkes, she has an extensive catalogue of chamber, orchestral, and educational works to her name. We recently spoke with Ailbhe about her experiences as a musician and composer, and her latest publication with Boosey & Hawkes, It's a Violin Thing.

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Can you tell us a little bit about yourself: what is your musical background? 

I spend my time divided between performing as a soloist and chamber musician on the cello, teaching as a professor at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin, and composing.

I have been writing since I was a very young student, and was lucky enough to have teachers who were open to the idea of playing pieces in my lessons that I had written myself. I also had a music theory teacher who thought I could write a good melody, and she started setting me composition tasks when I was really quite young. So composition has been something I have been doing for as long as I have been learning instruments. 

I have also recorded a lot of albums, including all of the Beethoven cello and piano sonatas, as well as the solo Bach cello suites on the Steinway label. I've made several other albums, not to mention all of the albums that go with the It's a... Thing series.

Tell us more about your work with the Royal Irish Academy of Music and Boosey & Hawkes? 

I won some composition competitions when I was quite young. The Royal Irish Academy of Music heard me play one of my compositions at a prize-winners' concert and asked if they could publish the piece. That was a piano piece called Anastasia, which was my first ever published piece. 

I have a wonderful relationship with Boosey & Hawkes; they are currently publishing three of my dance suites for solo violin, solo cello, and solo viola. I've worked very closely with Paul Hughes on a lot of different projects, including the It's a ... Thing series. I'm very lucky to work with him; he is one of the very few people I trust to pull out things in my work that I might not see. He's just excellent, a wonderful musician, and great to work with! 

Can you tell me how you decided on what instruments to include in the series, and if you plan to add more? 

The first collection of music that I had was all piano music, because that was what I had published with the Royal Irish Academy of Music. I'm also a pianist, and I play the piano on the recordings for the series. As a professional cellist, that was naturally the next instrument I wanted to write for.

Boosey & Hawkes approached me about the ukulele book because there was a new syllabus of ukulele music coming out. I downed tools, learnt the ukulele, did a lot of research, and had a lot of fun doing it! We had a wonderful guitarist, Brendan Walsh, who recorded all of the ukulele music. It was a wonderful experience to create new repertoire and a new kind of vibe for the instrument. 

The violin came after that. An Irish colleague and friend I often perform with, Lynda O’Connor, performed all of the recordings for It's a Violin Thing. I had previously written a Violin Concerto for her called The Irish Four Seasons, which she included in an album alongside Vivaldi's Four Seasons, so we'd been talking about it for a while.

I have already written quite a few pieces for viola and double bass for Boosey & Hawkes' Grade by Grade series, so I imagine that we will eventually get to those, too. I'm currently working on It's a Flute Thing, and possibly will do the saxophone after that. That will be a big learning curve for me, but really good fun! 

Do you learn all of the instruments before composing? 

I tend to try to learn every instrument that I'm writing for. It has been really helpful over the years. I'll sit down to write, already understanding how the instruments work. That is a really helpful skill when you are approaching something as big as an orchestral work. 

Do you have a favourite piece from the series so far?

I love Fandango, which is included in the cello and violin books. It is one of those funny pieces that I have performed live so many times; it isn't very difficult, but it is tricky because it uses the ricochet technique. The audience reaction to the piece is always hilarious; they all do a big 'woohoo!' at the end. The students also find that when they are playing the piece, they just love the energy of how it builds. 

Lynda had asked me to write a piece that was like Csárdás, which would be a showstopper and would set the audience on fire. That turned into the last piece in the It's a Violin Thing series, called Boyne Street Rhapsody. It is very cadenza-like, fast and furious, and is fun to play live. That is definitely a professional-level piece, but I snuck that one into the end of the series. 

For the piano, I would say Anastasia, as that was my first ever published piece, so I particularly love that one. I have to say, it is really quite a joy to write all of these little pieces. 

What techniques will students come across in It's a Violin Thing? 

I have tried to make sure that there is a very specific technique in every single piece. I mentioned Fandango earlier, which I have rewritten for the violin. Ricochet is something that young performers and adult beginners don't often get access to, and they then sometimes end up in an orchestra with complete and utter horror, as they don't know how to play with this kind of bow stroke. So I have specifically put things like that in for the violin. 

There is one piece called The Journey, which is very legato, and gives people an opportunity to focus on a specific position whilst also focusing on their vibrato and colour changes. 

There's another piece called Fairy Dust, which is played entirely on the natural harmonics of the instrument, all in one position. That is very unusual; you don't find that a lot in the violin repertoire. I have found from teaching cello students that it is quite hard to produce natural harmonics with a really legato sound. So after you learn this piece, your legato is so much better, as you have had to work really hard to get it sounding good with natural harmonics. 

What other styles and genres are included? 

There are pieces written entirely on the pentatonic scale. I have included one of the movements of my Solo Dance Suite in book two, which is a set of Irish reels. That requires a very specific technique to play Irish traditional music without it sounding classical. We have a little bit of jazz in there in Stephen's Green, and all of those dance forms I mentioned, like the Tango, which I love. 

Are there any composers or artists who inspire you in your work? 

I think probably everything that you play and listen to inspires a little bit of your composition. For me I always say that Shostakovich is one of my favourite composers. I love his style of dramatic melodies, alongside the harsh grittiness. It's all so dramatic. I love Mozart's melodies, I love the shaping and the ease and joy of that sort of style. I also really like Eric Whitaker's music at the moment. I think he has a really beautiful way of creating calm space and soulfulness. That is quite similar to the style I write in: I always want the music to make people feel something, whether it is joyful, laugh out loud, or something romantic and personal. Something that allows you to feel whatever you are feeling and helps you through it. 

What are common issues teachers encounter in their teaching, and how have you addressed those in the series? 

Interestingly for me, because I am teaching cello, a lot of the pieces were written with students in mind who needed something really engaging, but also something that was going to teach them something technical. I've tried to do that for every single piece. When people are entering the teenage years, they can get a little bit bored with the repertoire that is currently there, and I was very cognisant of that. I wanted to make sure that whatever I wrote was hopefully so engaging that they continue to love music, and it gets them through that period of time. 

I'm quite lucky as a professional musician that I have a lot of friends from orchestras that I can talk to. I think all professional musicians want really good repertoire for their instrument, and they also want engaging work for their teaching. At the moment, I am asking flute players if there is anything specific that they need, like ranges and rhythms. I know for the cello, there is a certain area that is not as resonant, so there is a need to develop that area, and I try to fulfil that need. I had actually already made lists of what techniques I wanted to cover in the series, so I have made sure that lots of key signatures, specific articulations, chromatic harmonies, and rhythmic structures have been included. I think that is the best thing, to ask friends who are professional musicians, if you are lucky enough to know them!

What is next for you? 

My Christmas album has just been released, I'm going on a string quartet tour in December, and playing a cello concerto. In the middle of that, I am going to be writing my third string quartet, which is very exciting!

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