This Is The House Of by Alarm Will Sound

Amanda Feery, composer
performed by Alarm Will Sound

Live at the Mizzou International Composers Festival, July 28, 2018

Text by Doireann Ni Ghriofa:
The house of the thief is known by the trees
I knew their mute gaze
But I am not meek

Note by the composer:
"This is the House Of" is about institutional control, personal space, and spaces that were once associated with nostalgia, now tarnished.

While I was writing the piece, a fiercely divisive referendum campaign on women's reproductive rights was unfolding in Ireland, and with that, stories of the tight historical control the Irish Catholic church has had over women and the state were exposed in the media on a daily basis. This made me think about my own relationship with the church; an important communal space in my village growing up, where I took art and dance classes. I cut my musical teeth singing choral music in the cool, stone resonance of these spaces, memories I remember with deep affection.

There is a strong discord between these memories and the abuses, concealment, and control of the church as an institution that I believe to be beyond unacceptable. The piece is an exploration of that discord.