George Benjamin

by Risto Nieminen, Renaud Machart

Book by Nieminen, Risto, Faber n Faber

90 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This little book on George Benjamin, the first in a Faber & Faber series on contemporary composers, was originally published by IRCAM in 1996 in French. If you know IRCAM's other guides like that on Magnus Lindberg or on Kaija Saariaho, you'll know something of what to expect from this one.

The bulk of the book consists of two sections. The first is an interview of George Benjamin by Risto Niemenen. Niemenen's part of the conservation is missing, so we have a series of reminisces by Benjamin on topics such as childhood, his studies with Messiaen, his general aesthetic, and his teaching. Extracts from scores are present to help illustrate his points, as when a discussion of microintervals is accompanied by a page of "Antara". At only thirty-four pages, this is not a very exhaustive self-presentation of the composer, but is interesting reading for fans. The second portion of the book is a survey of Benjamin's oeuvre by Renaud Marchart up to "Three Inventions". Marchart's comments on each piece are larger than the typical remarks of CD liner-notes, but not by much. Still, at least we get nice samples from the scores here, too. The book contains as appendices a list of compositions, a discography (now quite out of date), and a bibliography. The list of compositions is worth reading in that it contains remarks by Benjamin which occasionally shed light on the pieces, and it contains juvenalia which one doesn't hear much about elsewhere.

It's a shame the book is so slim. Benjamin's oeuvre may be relatively small, but it is full of ideas and merits greater study. One also regrets the age of the book, it was published before such interesting new pieces as "Shadowlines" and "Palimpests". Still, in spite of these complaints, it is the only book-length work about George Benjamin, and worth reading.