Ever since the invention of the motor car - and maybe in the heyday of horse-power as well - people have found that great ideas come to them when they are driving, writes Liam McAuley.
And so it was with the Belfast musician Patrick Davey. As he was sitting behind the wheel one Sunday morning in February 2002, a melody came into his mind, and stayed there.
Later that day he sat down at his computer to develop the tune. "Somehow," he says, "I instinctively knew it was an exact fit for the Irish words, "Is naofa, naofa, naofa Thú, a Thiarna Dia na slua" - the opening line of the "Holy, Holy", or "Sanctus", from the Catholic liturgy of the Mass.
Patrick had been composing Irish dance music in the traditional idiom for many years, but had long aspired to create the music for a Mass in Irish. By the end of that day the project was under way: he had finished the first movement and was able to listen to it played back on the computer.
"That was how each subsequent movement of the Mass came to be composed," Davey says. "Between February and August 2002 it was as if the main melodies were given to me along with a 'challenge' to make something of them."
The challenges having been met, that "something" finally took shape as Patrick Davey's Aifreann Feirste, which will have its first airing south of the Border next Saturday, January 31st, on the eve of St Brigid's day, in the Pro-Cathedral, Dublin at 8 p.m.
The strongly traditional style of the piece is not surprising, given Davey's musical background: he studied from the age of 11 with the renowned McPeake family, who have been prominent in Belfast traditional music circles for over half-a-century, influencing countless musicians, including Van Morrison. After leaving school, he read music at Queen's University Belfast, taking a B. Mus. degree and later a master's in performance studies.
In 1995 he won the uileann pipes championship at the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil and the following year was awarded the music teaching diploma of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Eireann. He has performed and recorded with many groups, including the Belfast Harp Orchestra and Craobh Rua, with whom he toured Britain, Europe and North America.
Aifreann Feirste is scored for a four-part choir with tenor soloist, and a 20-strong orchestra comprising both traditional and classical elements: uileann pipes, wooden flute, whistles, harps and concertina are combined with trumpet, horn and strings. The music is fluid and tuneful, inviting congregational participation. In its use of a popular idiom to communicate simply, directly and prayerfully, it is a "folk Mass" in the best sense of the word.
While Aifreann Feirste means simply "Belfast Mass", Davey says he felt the pull towards an underlying theme throughout the process of composition: the history of the Penal Laws, and the Mass rocks at which the liturgy was celebrated clandestinely in the open air. This led him to seek out texts referring to nature and wildlife.
His friend and musical colleague Éamann Ó Faogáin - the soloist in Aifreann Feirste - introduced him to the book Prayers of Two Peoples by Father Stephen J. Redmond, which contains translations from the anthology compiled in the 1970s by the late Father Diarmuid Ó Laoghaire, Ár bPaidreacha Dúchais. Davey chose some of these to complement the usual sung liturgy. The opening hymn, for example, based on a traditional prayer, begins:
"Níl lus ar lár
Nach bhfuil lán dá thoradh
Níl cruth ar trá
Nach bhfuil lán dá shonas. . ."
The translation reads:
"No flower in field,
No fish in stream,
No bird on wing,
No shape on shore,
No star in sky,
No living thing
But is rich in Him
And blessed in Him
And sings of Him."
Aifreann Feirste has had two previous performances, both in Belfast. It was premièred last May in St Mary's Church in the city centre; then in August, at the opening of the West Belfast Festival, it was presented in Clonard Monastery as a tribute to the broadcaster and singer Tony McAuley (brother of the present writer), who died last June.
As in both Belfast performances, the Mass will be sung next week by the Cushendall-based Glens Choir, with Éamann Ó Faogáin, accompanied by a specially formed orchestra of young traditional and classical musicians. Davey himself will conduct the music, and the Mass will be celebrated by Father Patrick O' Donoghue, director of music for the Diocese of Dublin.
"Most people don't realise that there's so much activity in Irish-language liturgical composing, so it's great that we can give a wide public the chance to hear a work like this," Father O'Donoghue says.
"What makes this Mass particularly interesting is that it is scored for orchestra as well as choir, blending Irish music with the classical tradition. And, of course, it's very singable."
Foras na Gaeilge has provided funding for the development of Aifreann
Feirste, and for next week's performance.
A CD, priced €15, is available from the composer (pdavey@irish-music.net).