Sebastian Adams

Complete works

All materials are freely available, except where I don't own the necessary permissions. Provided as is, please report bugs or mistakes. Feel free to get in touch with questions or to let me know you're interested in my work!

Singing Hollow

(2025)   [240]

A performance installation for church bells (method ringers), organ, and walking instruments. Designed around St Audoen's Church, Dublin but adaptable to new spaces. Two computers required.

Cover image for Singing Hollow

The linked website includes documentation, a web-based score and much more detailed information about the piece.

The Singing Hollow sculpture in St Audoen's Park invites visitors to put their heads into a hole inside a rock. It creates an acoustic transformation reminiscent of the feeling of sanctuary from the outside world that comes when you walk into a church. This inspired this live sound installation: organ plays inside the church, musicians play in the grounds, and church bells bridge both worlds, all playing parts that are both independent and interdependent.

In the original performance, the piece is designed for four outdoor instruments, six church bells (each one rung by an individual) and an organ. It was specifically written for St Audoen’s Church of Ireland, which is an incredibly old church.

Commissioned by The Office of Public Works and The Liberties Festival

Traffic Piece

(2025)   [840]

durational installation (14 hours) for multiple groups of instruments, video, audio and live traffic; devoted to Unit 44!

Cover image for Traffic Piece

Presented here in a web installation version that locks the viewer to the specific moment from the performance corresponding to the current time of day.

Traffic Piece was created as a goodbye to Unit 44, a venue Kirkos ran which was heavily impacted by traffic sound. It ran from rush hour in the morning to rush hour at night. I got the idea for this piece during a beautiful saxophone performance by Josten Myburgh where his barely audible multiphonics fought for attention with the traffic outside in a way that really captivated me. After four years watching the traffic pass Unit 44, I thought sitting down and really listening to it would be the perfect way to say goodbye to the venue.

A bunch of the performers who contributed a lot to Unit 44 played a 14-hour long score (working in shifts) made from a full week of security cam footage of the street outside Unit 44, while they and the audience also watched the traffic in real life.

These different time cycles (moment to moment, rush hour to rush hour, Monday to Sunday) will mingle with pitch material derived from the resonances of Unit 44 itself to influence a ritualistic performance which is fully about the specific place that Unit 44 is and has been, and about the way the outside world has spilled into it.

The piece finished with a guided improvisation using the traffic as a score, open to all.

06:30 - 08:10 Shift 1: Sebastian Adams and Tom Roseingrave
08:10 - 8:30: traffic only
08:30 - 10:10: Shift 2: David Bremner and Sharon Phelan
10:10 - 10:30: traffic only
10:30 - 12:30: Shift 3: Aonghus McEvoy, Susan Geaney, David Lacey, Nick Roth
12:10 - 12:30: traffic only
12:30 - 14:10: Beethoven Freeze: Sebastian Adams and Robert Coleman
14.10 - 14.30: traffic only
14:30 - 16:10: Shift 5: Kevin Free and Jane Hackett
16:10 - 16:30: traffic only
16:30 - 18:00: in nomine: Sebastian Adams, Hannah Miller, CaitrĂ­ona O'Mahony
18:00 - 18:30: traffic only
18:30 until the traffic ceases: Shift 7: open improv jam (all welcome)

Joan Somers Donnelly made a parallel performance taking notes on the passing traffic almost all day

Stolen Music

(2022)   [10]

fixed-media multi-channel video, diffused stereo sound, printed text materials, audience members with kazoos, interactive website and live narration

Stolen Music was originally conceived for my final project as part of the IRCAM Cursus, but it is also an ongoing musical world-building project composed of websites, audio collages, acts of piracy etc.

The basic aim of the project is to explore two main ideas that matter to me:

Examining the boundaries of a "piece" of music: questioning the idea of the sole author and finding ways to subvert the linear, sectional timeline of a typical musical performance
Presenting an argument that all musical material should be fair game for all people to work with, regardless of who owns it under current copyright law.

This project owes a huge debt to Claudia Jane Scroccaro, the other teachers at IRCAM, and my colleagues from my course who let me mess with their music. Much more info is available on the dedicated website.

Tide Quartet

(2020)   [90]

string quartet; violin, violin, viola, cello

Cover image for Tide Quartet

A string quartet dress in wet suits, sitting on chairs on the dry sea-bed in Dublin Bay. They perform a theme and variations (improvised from a set of instructions) as the tide begins to rush in around them. The performance ends for each musician only when the water reaches their neck, making it a durational piece reliant on the speed of the tide. Afterwards, the saturated instruments will be retrieved and the composer will attempt to save them by leaving them to dry naturally. This process will also be recorded and shown on this website. Unsalvageable parts will be repaired using driftwood, and the piece will be performed again next year.

espresso - micro sonata

(2021)   [2]

for performance by anybody (earphones and espresso required)

Read Text Score
The text score and required audio files are accessible on the linked page. (Click the button below)

Viola Transcription of 'Failing: a Very Difficult Piece for Solo String Bass' by Tom Johnson

(2021)   [10]
Read Text Score
This piece has never been realised. The idea is that the viola player performs "Failing" by Tom Johnson, but because the viola is so much easier than the double bass, something has to be done to make it more difficult. My plan is for the performer to do this piece dressed only in underwear, surrounded by a team of assistants who have carefully learned the score and will whip the performer every time they perceive that a mistake has been made.

How to Build a VIOLIN in TWENTY MINUTES Tutorial

(2021)   [20]

open instrumentation, designed for audience performance

Read Text Score
the video is an instruction score

Breath play [WIP]

(2020)  

viola

Read Text Score
I haven't made a score for this but basically it's a title piece (an event score in the spirit of Yoko Ono) where any interpretation of the title could lead to a valid performance. So far, I've only done it by playing existing music (Bach or Stravinksy) with a balloon in my mouth, tucked under the strings so that my breath distorts the sound.

Portrait Piece

(2019)  

event score

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Portrait Piece (22/8/2019 - for Cara) Take a blank sheet of manuscript paper. Divide the page into a 9 x 3 grid, using the full length and width of the page. Set a timer (an analogue egg timer would be ideal, if available) for four minutes, and in the time available, draw (in the first section of the grid) a pencil portrait of the first person who enters your head. Stop when the timer finishes. Do not stop early. Move on to the next section of the grid, and repeat the process, drawing the next person who enters your head. Continue until 27 portraits have been drawn, filling the entire page. Work without breaks, ensuring that the process takes exactly 108 minutes. After the page is full, take a rubber and erase everything that falls within the white space between the printed staves. You can imagine ledger lines if you wish. Come up with a system to translate the salient features of what remains into musical notation, then perform the piece. [N.B. The preparation does not necessarily have to take place during the performance] Fluxversion 1 (23/8/2019): Write out Portrait Piece in pencil, then remove all the text with a rubber, leaving just the title. Write a dash on the blank page, then perform.

Masturbate Piece

(2019)  

event score

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Masturbate Piece (4/7/2019) - Fluxversion 1: 1. In a private place, masturbate in whatever way is most comfortable/familiar to you. 2. Figure out a way to record/remember and transcribe this 3. In a public place, perform the transcription (in whatever way is most comfortable) (4/7/2019)

Omegle Piece

(2019)  

event score

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Omegle Piece (2019) - Fv 1 (2019): Perform Nivea Creme Piece, then Vaseline Symphonique, then Mayonnaise Piece on Omegle

Weight Piece

(2018)  

event score

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Weight Piece (2018) - Fv 1: Play your instrument and then get tied up by your colleagues. The piece ends when you can no longer play, or when you have been placed in a final position. (It's better not to play anything with personality, so the obstructions can be heard more easily) Fv 2: The original plan for this piece was to play viola with weights attached to arms, bow, etc. I still like the idea of trying this.

Arrest Piece

(2016)  

event score

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Arrest piece (2016) Evade capture Arrest piece Fluxversion 1 Discuss pornography at medium volume near a children's playground. When police arrive, escape by digging a hole to Australia (both versions on one card)

Tweet Piece (#1)

(2012)  

4 - 8 performers