Paul Greally: Daddy Longlegs
Paul Greally, born 2001, is a composer and organist.
In 2018, Paul was selected from hundreds of entrants as one of the winners in the Upper Junior category of the annual ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Proms Inspire Competition. His winning piece, Daddy Longlegs, was performed by members of Aurora Orchestra at the Proms Inspire Concert at the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½â€™s Radio Theatre on 22 August 2018.
“I wanted to create a sense of frantic activity in a limited space in this piece and used polyphony and a crawling octatonic scale to give a feeling of claustrophobia. The unpredictable leaps in the clarinet part evoke the Daddy Longlegs’ haphazard flight and insectile glissando whines in the cello line bring its other name, ‘mosquito hawk’, to mind. The insect’s fragility and limited lifespan are reflected by disjointed melodies and the brief two-minute duration of the piece, but the closing major chord suggests a carefree ignorance of mortality.â€
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