{TABLE} Perfect State (1996) for violin and cello ......... Ciaran Farrell Four pieces for two Clarinets (1995) .............. Carol McGonnell Philip's Peace (1993) for cello and piano ......... Elaine Agnew Voitures (1996) for amplified oboe and computer generated tape ................................................... Donncha Dennehy Chamber Cello Concerto (1994) for cello solo, flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon ........................................... Ann Hoban {/TABLE} ONLY one of the young Irish composers whose works were performed by Concorde in the Hugh Lane Gallery on Sunday made use of electronically created sound. In Voitures, which could have been subtitled An Insomniac in Paris, the combination of oboe and tape was skilfully used to create a sound picture of passing traffic in which hints of an underlying musical structure emerged from time to time.

The other works by those the programme called Tomorrow's Composers Today were more traditional and could be divided into two groups. Both Farrell and Agnew made use of harmonies that came gratefully, to the ear, whereas McGonnell and Hoban produced pieces whose formal demands led to a much more prominent use of dissonance. If the heart ruled in the former two, the head took control in the latter, creating in the first of McGonnell's Four Pieces a most acerbic mingling of the two melodic lines and in Hoban's Concerto for cello and four wind instruments a severe and unyielding polyphony in which the lyrical possibilities of the cello were barely in evidence.

Agnew's Philip's Peace has been performed before, Dennehy's Voitures was receiving its first Irish performance, and all the other works were being performed for the first time. Tomorrow's composers must indeed be grateful to Concorde for giving them this opportunity to hear their works in public today before they become the composers of yesterday.