Reservoir (2007)

Composer note
I remember, years ago, seeing a Bill Viola video of a man gradually being submerged in water. It stayed with me. My piece, Reservoir, undoubtedly in two parts, the second reflecting on the first, has begun to remind me of this Viola video. I had not intended any comparison, but there is a similarity in the oppositional relationship between the first and second halves of my piece and that between being above or under water in the Viola video. The sustaining quality of the second part could feel as if it were underwater, a reservoir of collected resonances, amplified by the use of the sustain pedal.

Reservoir was written for Isabelle O’Connell, who premiered it at Weill Hall, Carnegie Hall in October 2007.

— Donnacha Dennehy