Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Holly Harrison
Bend/Boogie/Break (2018)
(for mixed sextet)- Wise Music G. Schirmer Australia Pty Ltd (World)
Commissioned by Penny Le Couteur and Greg Dickson, and first performed by Ensemble Offspring
Programme Note
The title Bend/Boogie/Break describes the character of three recurring ideas in the work:
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Bend refers to the use of glissandi and pitch bends (particularly strings)
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Boogie refers to the underlying funk bass
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Break: as in, to break apart or a ‘breakdown’ section (perhaps a nod to metal rhythms!)
Inspiration is drawn from post-rock, funk, and honky-tonk piano, as well as the overarching idea of warping vinyl and things ‘going wrong’ – perhaps bent out of shape, broken, or not quite right.
Media
Reviews
She is motivated by a range of genres that she has grown up with, from rock, to classical and her own music is borderless as a result... The rhythm, the boogie, achieves the playfulness that is hallmark Harrison, and it continually sustains the deviations, the unpredictable in the piece... Harrison always demonstrates a clear trajectory in her work despite her adventurousness. It’s fabulous, uplifting music.
...the title Bend/Boogie/Break evoking the piece’s siren-like slides, grooving funk rhythms and harder beats respectively. Zubin Kanga delivered gritty bass lines from the keyboard, offset at the other end by Claire Edwardes on vibraphone and woodblock – not to mention the sharper punctuation of hi-hat and bass drum. Rowena Macneish’s string-slapping cello stoked the work’s momentum, while Véronique Serret on violin, Lamorna Nightingale on flute and Jason noble and clarinets offered plenty of colour, and some nods to spectral music – which drills down into the acoustic components of music, frequencies, fundamentals and overtones – in gentler moments of mingling upper registers, Edwardes’ taking to the vibes with a bow