His beautiful, bony fingers articulate, his four plus four bars make eight Irish traditional bars. The drone bass – or its cleverly placed absence , these build the heard form for Tony Macmahon’s right-hand pleading , his hymning, high linear gasps and plaintive, plain( Co. Clare ) chanting , the old Irish harpers’ pre-Schubertian airs, monumental architectural a la A A B B , a strong ascent, trembling trellis-work above, their lovely descent. Frank Corcoran’s Second Law Of Slow Airs’ Thermodynamics.
For years I – as an Irish composer – I’ve heard breathlessly Tony’s melodic tracery; – all its delicate, ornamented phrasing. Or take his humility , a few buttons to sing the bass line . Rock-like.Rock-
Tony MacMahon’s “Sean O Duibhir An Ghleanna” is a masterpiece of Naive Art – its native singing , his box wind-music from my beaten race. I myself have tried to approach its symmetry. Many times.
Track Four then , ” The Wounded Hussar ” , is something quite other – minor becomes major . Tony MacMahon’s Picardy Third wings . Bony work great !