The word ‘synapse’ comes from the Greek: ‘syn’ meaning ‘together’ and ‘haptein’ meaning ‘to clasp’.  In the field of neuroscience, the term ‘synapse’ refers to the tiny gap between neurons in the nervous system.  Across this gap signals (chemical neurotransmitters) are transmitted between neighbouring neurons in the form of ‘stop’ or ‘go’ messages.  The status of the message is defined by the concentration of positively or negatively charged ions entering the receiving neurons.

 
The concept of a ‘musical synapse’ is represented in this piece by the apparent gap between sounds that emanate from the real instruments of the orchestra and the electronic sound-world that is triggered, articulated and shaped by the orchestral instruments.  In some respects the triggering of these sounds parallels the ‘stop’/‘go’ messages of the synaptic nerves.  The electronic timbres comprise materials which were pre-composed in the studio and sounds of the orchestra which are transformed in real-time during the performance.

“Synapse” is in one continuous movement with musical ideas derived from a single scale which traverses the entire range of the orchestra from contrabassoon to piccolo.  This ‘super-scale’ provides a degree of harmonic focus for the work and characterises the many complex textures that are explored by the orchestral forces.

The work was commissioned by RTE for the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland.  Much of the initial work on the piece was undertaken during a residency at The Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig, County Monaghan.

The initial ideas for this piece came at the end of 1994 when I was working at Stanford University, California. It was only a matter of weeks after the cease-fires had been declared in Northern Ireland and several months since our local butcher in Crossgar had been murdered; both these events had been on my mind and for the first time I felt a strong desire to comment in some way on the troubles which have blighted all our lives for so many years. Macha’s Curse is a personal response to this. It is a work without political, programmatic or symbolic references. Instead it attempts to capture some of the complex emotions which have touched so many lives in the Province.

The work is in two large sections. The first section is fast and homophonic, the second is an interlocking series of slower homophonic blocks which draw harmonic and rhythmic ideas from the first section. Across the span of the piece there is a general thinning of musical material; the dense, high-pitched harmonies of the opening eventually become widely spaced timbres and single lines in the closing bars.

Macha is a mythological figure in Irish history who, in one of her tales, is forced to run a race against the horses of king Conor mac Nessa. She is pregnant with the twins of Crundchu at the time. She outruns the horses but is seized with the pangs of childbirth. As revenge she casts upon Ulster a curse for nine times nine generations.