‘Little Mammy birdie stays at home today because all the chicks are coming out today. God loves the birdies that sing in the trees...’
Eímear Noone is transported back to her childhood in east Galway during our chat and spontaneously breaks into song when asked about her first musical memory.
Aged four, she was on a visit to a school in Castleblakeney in Galway with her mother to see her aunt Carmel when she was brought out on stage to sing.
“I still remember it [the song] to this day,” she says, laughing, from LA, where she is chatting to Irish Country Living remotely via Zoom.
It’s been quite a musical journey the award-winning composer and conductor has travelled since then, to her current powerhouse position scoring music extensively for film, TV and many best-selling video games. Anyone who has played World of Warcraft will know her inspirational music, which has reached more than 100 million people.
Alongside composing, Eímear conducts orchestras worldwide, one of only a handful of women to do so, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Concert Orchestra and Sydney Symphony Orchestra, amongst many others.
In 2020, she made history by becoming the first female conductor to perform at the 92nd Academy Awards ceremony and is constantly pushing the boundaries of her musical repertoire.
Eímear Noone conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra ‘Worlds of Fantasy’ video games concert in London’s Royal Albert Hall last year.
Galway girl
Today, she is reflecting on her work on BÁITE, a new Irish-language film out now in cinemas, which recently won an IFTA for Best Original Music for Eímear and her husband Craig Stuart Garfinkle.
Set in 1975, BÁITE, which means ‘The Drowned’, is a gripping mystery that begins with the discovery of a body in the receding waters of a lake and threatens to open long-submerged secrets in a small community.
For a proud Galway woman – who jokes that she “bleeds maroon and white”– to be involved in a production revolving around and filmed in the west was a pure joy. While never sure where the ideas for the music come from, the Kilconnell native is of the view that it comes from everything that is in her. And Eímear’s homeplace and community are a massive part of that.
“I grew up loving the orchestra, even though we’re in area that’s very rich in traditional music. I mean Paddy Fahey [the renowned fiddler and composer] was my neighbour. I’d always joke that in my school when the ball went out of the schoolyard, it could land in the local composer’s garden,” she recalls. “In my head, you could grow up to be a farmer, a teacher, a nurse or a composer because we had one in the village.
“Paddy’s tunes were always different; they had an interesting twist to them or an interesting flavour, so I suppose when I’m writing a score, especially if it’s Irish, I’ll try to put a skin on it that is distinctly Irish. It might take a turn that you wouldn’t expect.
“With BÁITE, the landscape was so evocative. That opening scene with those drone shots [of Connemara] nearly scored itself.”
She is full of praise for director Ruán Magan, brother of the late Manchán Magan, whom she describes as the “most Irish of Irishmen”, who was very trusting of their understanding of film for his first movie.
Actors Oisín Mistéil, Eleanor O’Brien and Moe Dunford in a scene from BÁITE. Eímear Noone co-wrote the score for the film. \Martin Maguire
“Both of us will watch the scene and listen to the music in our heads that we think should be there,” she tells Irish Country Living of the process. “It’s like listening to the ether as if it already exists. It sounds a bit daft, but sometimes I’ll sit at the piano and I’ll write half a melody line and try and listen to the other half as if it exists. It’s a bit mad,” she says, smiling.
“People say, ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ and I say, ‘Everywhere.’ I do really appreciate having grown up in the countryside because I feel that it always is part of the music. I feel it’s in everything I do.”
Preparing for masterclasses at Berklee School of Music in Boston and an upcoming tour of Asia, meant Eímear missed the IFTA triumph, but she was well represented. “Mum had an absolute ball, of course, accompanying Craig,” she says, laughing during a break from composing a flute concerto for the LA Chamber Orchestra.
The musician has great admiration for the filmmaking and animation community in Ireland, which she believes is “punching way above its weight” and is very collegiate.
“Craig and I both loved working with the team on BÁITE because we felt it was a family story; it felt very authentic to us. We loved the creatives involved.”
A huge advocate of music education, she is adamant that we need more of the subject in schools in a serious way, building on the work of organisations like Music Generation because it is so good for a child’s developing brain and mental health.
“People are so isolated on devices and it’s not good for us, but having an instrument and having a place to go in your imagination sitting playing by yourself or getting together with other players is wonderful.
“There is nothing like communing with other human beings with instruments. It’s just good for you, it’s good for your mental health and good for your soul even if you never become a professional.”
The energy of live music can’t be bettered for her, and she recalls fondly being given the opportunity to conduct her school orchestra by Sr Vianney in Ard Scoil Mhuire in Ballinasloe.
At the Oscars...
With the Oscars only around the corner (she is rooting for Jessie Buckley all the way), how does she look back on that time in the spotlight in 2020?
“My memories of the Oscars ceremony are pure joy. It was so fulfilling and wonderful to perform at. I remember lots of journalists asking me if I was going to be nervous, and I couldn’t figure out was there something they knew that I didn’t know. I just loved it.
“I was shown so much respect and felt welcomed with open arms. I felt in that room there was a parity of respect; if you were in there, you had done something to earn being there.”
Dividing her time between LA and Kilconnell, her favourite place in the world, Eímear says she and her family revel in the time with relatives and friends over the summer.
She jokes that while her two boys often hijack their studio in Kilconnell to play video games, the lure of the countryside proves stronger.
“All that needs to happen to toss all of that out the window is for my uncle Tom Noone to pull up outside with his dog Captain in the back of the jeep and shout for the boys, and they are gone up the field.”
The boys are very excited about learning to drive the tractor with her farmer uncle over the holidays.
Farming and music have much in common, Eímear muses; both are a way of life rather than just a job, its something people don’t realise.
“I can no more give this up than breathing. It’s not my job. It’s my way of life. It’s who I am,” she says matter-of-factly.
“I know that about the farmers in my family and in my community as well. That’s their way of life, the family history in the land, how it is looked after and the traditions.
“I think that’s the commonality that’s there [between music and farming]; we understand each other.”
‘Little Mammy birdie stays at home today because all the chicks are coming out today. God loves the birdies that sing in the trees...’
Eímear Noone is transported back to her childhood in east Galway during our chat and spontaneously breaks into song when asked about her first musical memory.
Aged four, she was on a visit to a school in Castleblakeney in Galway with her mother to see her aunt Carmel when she was brought out on stage to sing.
“I still remember it [the song] to this day,” she says, laughing, from LA, where she is chatting to Irish Country Living remotely via Zoom.
It’s been quite a musical journey the award-winning composer and conductor has travelled since then, to her current powerhouse position scoring music extensively for film, TV and many best-selling video games. Anyone who has played World of Warcraft will know her inspirational music, which has reached more than 100 million people.
Alongside composing, Eímear conducts orchestras worldwide, one of only a handful of women to do so, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Concert Orchestra and Sydney Symphony Orchestra, amongst many others.
In 2020, she made history by becoming the first female conductor to perform at the 92nd Academy Awards ceremony and is constantly pushing the boundaries of her musical repertoire.
Eímear Noone conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra ‘Worlds of Fantasy’ video games concert in London’s Royal Albert Hall last year.
Galway girl
Today, she is reflecting on her work on BÁITE, a new Irish-language film out now in cinemas, which recently won an IFTA for Best Original Music for Eímear and her husband Craig Stuart Garfinkle.
Set in 1975, BÁITE, which means ‘The Drowned’, is a gripping mystery that begins with the discovery of a body in the receding waters of a lake and threatens to open long-submerged secrets in a small community.
For a proud Galway woman – who jokes that she “bleeds maroon and white”– to be involved in a production revolving around and filmed in the west was a pure joy. While never sure where the ideas for the music come from, the Kilconnell native is of the view that it comes from everything that is in her. And Eímear’s homeplace and community are a massive part of that.
“I grew up loving the orchestra, even though we’re in area that’s very rich in traditional music. I mean Paddy Fahey [the renowned fiddler and composer] was my neighbour. I’d always joke that in my school when the ball went out of the schoolyard, it could land in the local composer’s garden,” she recalls. “In my head, you could grow up to be a farmer, a teacher, a nurse or a composer because we had one in the village.
“Paddy’s tunes were always different; they had an interesting twist to them or an interesting flavour, so I suppose when I’m writing a score, especially if it’s Irish, I’ll try to put a skin on it that is distinctly Irish. It might take a turn that you wouldn’t expect.
“With BÁITE, the landscape was so evocative. That opening scene with those drone shots [of Connemara] nearly scored itself.”
She is full of praise for director Ruán Magan, brother of the late Manchán Magan, whom she describes as the “most Irish of Irishmen”, who was very trusting of their understanding of film for his first movie.
Actors Oisín Mistéil, Eleanor O’Brien and Moe Dunford in a scene from BÁITE. Eímear Noone co-wrote the score for the film. \Martin Maguire
“Both of us will watch the scene and listen to the music in our heads that we think should be there,” she tells Irish Country Living of the process. “It’s like listening to the ether as if it already exists. It sounds a bit daft, but sometimes I’ll sit at the piano and I’ll write half a melody line and try and listen to the other half as if it exists. It’s a bit mad,” she says, smiling.
“People say, ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ and I say, ‘Everywhere.’ I do really appreciate having grown up in the countryside because I feel that it always is part of the music. I feel it’s in everything I do.”
Preparing for masterclasses at Berklee School of Music in Boston and an upcoming tour of Asia, meant Eímear missed the IFTA triumph, but she was well represented. “Mum had an absolute ball, of course, accompanying Craig,” she says, laughing during a break from composing a flute concerto for the LA Chamber Orchestra.
The musician has great admiration for the filmmaking and animation community in Ireland, which she believes is “punching way above its weight” and is very collegiate.
“Craig and I both loved working with the team on BÁITE because we felt it was a family story; it felt very authentic to us. We loved the creatives involved.”
A huge advocate of music education, she is adamant that we need more of the subject in schools in a serious way, building on the work of organisations like Music Generation because it is so good for a child’s developing brain and mental health.
“People are so isolated on devices and it’s not good for us, but having an instrument and having a place to go in your imagination sitting playing by yourself or getting together with other players is wonderful.
“There is nothing like communing with other human beings with instruments. It’s just good for you, it’s good for your mental health and good for your soul even if you never become a professional.”
The energy of live music can’t be bettered for her, and she recalls fondly being given the opportunity to conduct her school orchestra by Sr Vianney in Ard Scoil Mhuire in Ballinasloe.
At the Oscars...
With the Oscars only around the corner (she is rooting for Jessie Buckley all the way), how does she look back on that time in the spotlight in 2020?
“My memories of the Oscars ceremony are pure joy. It was so fulfilling and wonderful to perform at. I remember lots of journalists asking me if I was going to be nervous, and I couldn’t figure out was there something they knew that I didn’t know. I just loved it.
“I was shown so much respect and felt welcomed with open arms. I felt in that room there was a parity of respect; if you were in there, you had done something to earn being there.”
Dividing her time between LA and Kilconnell, her favourite place in the world, Eímear says she and her family revel in the time with relatives and friends over the summer.
She jokes that while her two boys often hijack their studio in Kilconnell to play video games, the lure of the countryside proves stronger.
“All that needs to happen to toss all of that out the window is for my uncle Tom Noone to pull up outside with his dog Captain in the back of the jeep and shout for the boys, and they are gone up the field.”
The boys are very excited about learning to drive the tractor with her farmer uncle over the holidays.
Farming and music have much in common, Eímear muses; both are a way of life rather than just a job, its something people don’t realise.
“I can no more give this up than breathing. It’s not my job. It’s my way of life. It’s who I am,” she says matter-of-factly.
“I know that about the farmers in my family and in my community as well. That’s their way of life, the family history in the land, how it is looked after and the traditions.
“I think that’s the commonality that’s there [between music and farming]; we understand each other.”
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