Nominee
GRAMMY® Awards
2026
Land of Winter
Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance
Best Contemporary Classical Composition
About the Work
Recording: Nonesuch Records (2025)
Land of Winter is a modern tone poem in twelve interconnected movements. Each movement reflects a month of the year. The title originates from the Roman name for Ireland, Hibernia, meaning “land of winter.” The Romans imagined Ireland as perpetually bound to winter’s grip. However, Dennehy takes a more nuanced approach. He views winter as a canvas that reveals the intricate interplay of light and shadow across the seasons.
“It is the varying quality of light that truly demarcates the seasons,” Dennehy explains. Accordingly, he translates the solstices and equinoxes musically through overtone distributions. Each instrument peaks and subsides differently, creating sweeps of color and shade. The piece also draws on a Bach advent chorale (Wie soll ich dich empfangen) and melodic abstractions from the Irish sean-nós vocal tradition.
The work begins in December—crystalline, translucent, with darkness enveloping it. It then culminates at the end of November, ready to begin all over again. As Dennehy reflects, “Ultimately, I think of Land of Winter as both a celebration of recurring time—yielding more and more on each listening—but also something written in fear of the power of linear time, the progress towards death.” A haunting phrase from Samuel Beckett underscores this inspiration: “Thirty-thousand nights. Hard to believe so few.”
Alarm Will Sound Performances:
September 15, 2022 – Beethoven Bonn Festival
December 11 and 12, 2024 – Irish Arts Center, New York, NY