Donnacha Dennehy: The Hunger

The version of The Hunger that is presented on this recording is the concert version of the piece, which I made in 2017-18. The Hunger also exists in an extended version for stage (completed in 2016, revised 2019), incorporating video interviews with economists, historians and philosophers. In the concert version I dispense with this strand to concentrate entirely on the intersecting narrative developing between Mrs. Nicholson and the old, dying Irish man. More is implied rather than stated in this version. The sense of how incapable bureaucracy is at dealing with a quickly transforming crisis, and how that bureaucracy can be used as a screen for being unfeeling, is implied by the narrative that Asenath tells of the old man’s dealings with the hunger relief station, and the way the music surges and fades, embodying the old man’s Sisyphean task. I am nevertheless deeply grateful to all my collaborators on the stage version, in particular Jocelyn Clarke (for his dramaturgical assistance) and Tom Creed (the director). I know that my thinking about the concert version is indebted to the discussions of the dramaturgical shape that I had with these two throughout the development of the piece. I am especially thankful to the historian Maureen Murphy for her unparalleled knowledge of Asenath Nicholson and her writings. Maureen has been not only a constant source of vital information but also of support. I consider getting to know her one of the great by-products of my working on this piece. The Hunger was commissioned by Alarm Will Sound, and has received financial assistance from New Music USA, The MAP Fund, and the Arts Council of Ireland. The Hunger also incorporates material from a stand-alone piece, If he died what then, based on a section of Asenath Nicholson’s text, that I originally wrote for Dawn Upshaw and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (commissioned by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra). The Hunger is dedicated to Courtney Orlando. —Donnacha Dennehy