b. 1995 (human #109,845,752,487)
Rory Murphy is an Irish composer.
His work has a primary focus on notation, in particular on experimental and invented notation, and deals with the phenomenology of performance and interpretation, seeking novel and stimulating ways to engage performers creatively. To describe those of his works which are three-dimensional and multi-sensory in nature he has coined the term "notation-installation", and of these there are three which have been publicly premiered; Cneas (2025), frequency illusion (2023), and Hilling (2022). Other interests include miniature, fragmentation, and aleatory.
Recent projects include:
- Cneas, a notation-installation for alto flute which was premiered by Sara Di Costanzo in Assisi in September 2025, and developed there while artist-in-residence at Arte Studio Ginestrelle. This piece marks the beginning proper of a practice of "somatosensory notation", or notation which utilises the performer's sense of touch exclusively. Here notation is intended to stimulate rather than communicate, foregrounding sensory perception and avoiding the conventional semiotics of notation.
- aspects, a set of seven preludes for Andrew McPherson's magnetic resonator piano (MRP) for which he received an Agility Award from Arts Council Ireland in 2024. This project's aim was to develop notation for the MRP as a guidepost for composers, as well as expand the repertoire of the instrument for performers and make it more accessible to them. Each of the preludes employs a different notational approach, resulting in a set which is sonically cohesive while offering various interpretive challenges.
- the creation of a new compositional tool for the generation and progression of hexadic harmonic structures, for which he received an Agility Award in 2023. This is an ongoing project, and its results can be heard in works such as anfractus, nonsense, The Children of Lir, and frequency illusion.
He has twice received grants from Tónskáldasjóður RÚV og STEFs (RÚV and STEF Composer's Fund, Iceland), for aspects (2023) and Hilling (2022).
He received his M.Mus. in Composition from Iceland University of the Arts (2023) and B.A. in Music from Trinity College Dublin (2018, first class honours), completed an Erasmus Graduate Traineeship in Artistic Research at Orpheus Institute in Ghent, Belgium (2024), and is represented by the Contemporary Music Centre in Dublin.
His music has been performed publicly in Belgium, England, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, and Northern Ireland by Extended Music Collective, Sara Di Costanzo, Meliora Quartet, Xenia Pestova Bennett, Quatuor Flume, Caput Ensemble, Edda Óskarsdóttir, Messíana Kristinsdóttir, and Ensemble Adapter with John McCowen.