ALTHOUGH the morning is not actually sunny, the generous quantities of light which stream into the main concourse of the Hugh Lane Gallery make it seem as if it might be. In the middle of the floor a group of musicians is involved in an animated discussion of something technical involving cables; [the audience drifts gradually and easily into place; the programme notes are articulate and interesting; and if you get restless while waiting for the concert to begin, you can always leave your coat on your chair and spend a few moments with those magical landscapes by Corot or Patrick O'Reilly's heartbreakingly witty sculptures. It is, in truth, a very pleasant way to spend a Sunday morning.
The free concert series at the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery on Parnell Square in Dublin, which is now known as Sundays At Noon, was born in 1976 when pianist Gillian Smith and violinist Therese Timoney gave a series of performances of the complete Bach violin sonatas at the venue. The concerts won an immediate following, so, with the help of a small grant from Dublin Corporation, the two artists kept them going, adding the occasional singer for variety of sound.
Since then variety of sound has become the staple diet of a series which is now mainly funded by the Corporation and which last year featured 21 concerts - of which two were devoted to early music, eight had programmes devoted exclusively to 20th century music, and 13 featured performers from abroad. The latter received additional funding from foreign embassies and cultural institutions, including the Goethe Institut and Istituto Italiano; and there were four concerts by the Concorde ensemble which is assisted by the Arts Council.
New music is almost old hat at the Hugh Lane Gallery, and although the first instalment of a series of complete Beethoven sonatas for cello and piano, performed by the cellist Annette Cleary and the pianist Peter Dains, packed the venue on January 5th to the point of standing room only, there was a healthy and attentive audience of 250 plus for last Sunday's programme of new works by the guitarist and composer Benjamin Dwyer. Not only that, but people seemed to actually enjoy the music - at least, to judge by the excited buzz after the concert.
"Yes, well, the old angst is going out of contemporary music at last, thank God," said pianist Anthony Byrne, who knows more about the subject than most, since he plays a good deal of new music himself and is, in fact, due to give the first performance of three new piano pieces by Dwyer in May. "For a long time nobody wrote any happy pieces but, after all, the wars have been over for 50 years now, the economy's very good, divorce is in - I don't understand why we can't have the odd little waltz, or even the odd tune here and there. I played a new work called Soundings, by Philip Martin, here a few months ago and there are a couple of good tunes in that; and Ben's pieces today had a lot of rhythmic drive, they were pretty upbeat."
MUSIC therapist Jim Cosgrove, who was also in the audience, is a regular Sundays At Noon man. "I think there's a curiosity there, I think contemporary sounds - and soundscapes - have caught on over the years. I remember when there'd be a classical programme one week and a contemporary programme the next, and you'd see a definite downturn for the contemporary programmes. And then Christopher Harvey, who was running the concerts at the time, had the idea of doing mixed programmes and now you get pretty much a full house for new music as well.
About a third of last week's audience, he reckoned, was composed of musicians or people who have a special interest in the music. "And maybe another third would be regulars, who come just because they're regulars; and then another third who just kind of wander in because they hear about it. Or in the summer you'd get a lot of tourists who come in - an you sometimes find that if people don't like the first piece, they just walk out. Which is unfortunate."
There was no such exodus on Sunday - on the contrary, the surge tended to be towards the composer, to offer post concert compliments and thanks. Teacher and pianist Siobhan Keenan expressed particular satisfaction at the informal atmosphere at the gallery, which allows face to face interaction between composer and audience, and at the way Dwyer introduced each new piece with a few words of explanation.
"He gives people something to grasp on to, which is very important, because a lot of the time listening to new music is like looking at a modern painting - people don't know where to start or what to think, so it gives them a handle on it, and gives them an insight into the composer that they don't normally get."
For Siobhan, who has been in a wheelchair for three years, it's not just the music which is accessible at the Hugh Lane Gallery. "This is a really accessible venue, which is terribly important for disabled people. Places which have made the effort should be commended, I think, and the Hugh Lane definitely deserves a pat on the back - for that effort."
Another paion the back comes from the composer himself, who recalled some of the concerts he has been to at the gallery over the years, which have included a piano recital by the late Charles Lynch, electronic music, Irish music and a recital by a Turkish oud player who spoke not a word of English.
"I had my musical education in this place - you don't get educated in colleges, you get educated by listening to music, and you get all kinds of music here. It seems to be a venue where contemporary music is accepted hands down, which is good, and very, very rare." As for the accessibility, or otherwise, of his music, he is pragmatic: "I think what I try to do, and I don't even do it consciously, I just do it because I started out as a rock musician, is to bring in other idioms. I wrote a piano piece once where I had all the elbows down on the keyboard and somebody said, - oh, that's very 1950s'. Well, I didn't know it was very 1950s, I just wanted it to sound like Hendrix or, you know, shoving a guitar into an amplifier or something. I'm not coming from any socio political angle; I don't have any `ism' to push; but I'm interested in expanding the sound world of various instruments - without actually getting somebody to saw them in half."
THERE'LL be no sawing in half at this week's Sunday At Noon concert either - a programme of music for flute and tape by the baroque flautist Eleanor Dawson - or, indeed, for the foreseeable future, with the next batch of concerts promising a further instalment of Beethoven, new works by Nicola le Fanu and several guitar recitals as part of Dublin Guitar Week.
Other highlights of the gallery's programme for 1997 include a complete series of Bach sonatas for violin and harpsichord by the baroque violinist Maya Homburger and the harpsichordist Malcolm Proud (March), a Brahms/Schubert centenary/ bi centenary celebration of piano duets by Reamonn Keary and Shirin Goudarzi Tobin (April, June and October), a 50th anniversary performance of Schoenberg in May and the unveiling of new works by Philip Martin in November. And admission to all concerts, just in case you didn't notice that crucial little four letter word in the second paragraph above, is absolutely free.
