Music

Ed Bennett The music piece I would like to describe belongs to Ed Bennett, a prominent Irish composer who has been active exactly since 1999. Ed Bennett has been a widely performed and rather successful composer, focusing on various forms and mixture of various styles (as it is quite typical for contemporary classical music). Among his works, there are ensemble and orchestral pieces, opera and even electronic music (Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland). The composition I would like to pay attention to is called “ Vagabonds and Blood from the Earth”, which is a part of the “ Dzama stories” album created by the composer in cooperation with Paul Dunmall, a British solo saxophonist (Fordham), in 2009. The written parts of music were created for Bennett’s stunning ensemble called Decibel. The work was inspired by paintings of Marcel Dzama, a Canadian painter. The chosen composition is the first part of the album; it virtually opens “ Dzama stories”.
“ Vagabonds and Blood from the Earth” is surely a powerful composition for the album opening (in combination with the calm intro). Here, like in the rest of the album, Bennett created a powerful and balanced interplay of structural written music fragments and immediate striking improvisation. Then, the sharp “ edge” between calm fragment of the introduction and “ blitzkriegs of turbulence, throbbing and thumping in turn” (Graham) seems to be rather innovative and daring, and the composition is significant as a part of Bennett’s “ sound” representation (or “ reading”) of Dzama’s works. To my thinking, the composition is virtually overwhelming in terms of emotional charge, and even thrilling (due to piercing strings and sharp dramatic transitions between calm and intense parts). In the moments of intensification (when strings reach especially high pitches and the entire composition becomes chaotic to some extent), this piece could even be associated with a horror movie or a thriller. However, despite my deep respect towards the talent and creativity of this composer, this piece evokes rather negative and turbulent emotions in me: anxiety and some intangible foreboding.
URL: https://myspace. com/edbennett1/music/song/vagabonds-and-blood-from-the-earth-74533884-82258147
Works Cited:
Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland. “ Ed Bennett”. From: http://www. cmc. ie/composers/composer. cfm? composerID= 130
Fordham, John. “ Ed Bennett: Dzama Stories – review”, The Guardian, 2011. From: http://www. theguardian. com/music/2011/feb/17/ed-bennett-dzama-stories-review
Graham, Stephen. Ed Bennett: Dzama Stories, 2010. From: http://www. musicalcriticism. com/recordings/cd-bennett-1210. shtml