for six players
Fernando Benadon
for three male voices
for twelve players
In 3
Tanglewood Festival for Contemporary Music (2001)
Fromm/Tanglewood Commission
"Engagingly forward" -- NY Times, Paul Griffiths, 2001
Meet Café
excerpt 1 excerpt 2
New York New Music Ensemble (2006). Also performed by: Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Continuum Contemporary Music (Toronto), Tanglewood Music Center Fellows, Berkeley New Music Project, Towson University New Music Ensemble, Ensemble Green (Los Angeles).
Winner, League of Composers/International Society for Contemporary Music 2005 competition.
"A perfect curtainraiser [of] eargrabbing invention" -- NY Times, Allan Kozinn, 2006. Read the full review.
Spectrographic and Calligraphic Cues in the Identification of Jazz Saxophonists
Conceptually, it has been common to distinguish two aspects of music performance: what might be called calligraphic (pitch, rhythm, and contour) and spectrographic (timbre, non-quantized rhythm, and expressive gestures such as pitch bend and vibrato). An experiment is presented to support the hypothesis that well known jazz saxophonists can be recognized by their sound alone (i.e., without any calligraphic information).
European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music, 2003.
for alto saxophone & percussion
for large ensemble
Soon
"In 3 two" performance by Paul Klee Quartet, Venice, Italy, June 27.
"Búgi Wúgi" performance by Ivan Ilic, Weill Recital Hall, NYC, June 23.
Now
Composing "Improfission," a CD-length collage of improvisations by Courtney Orlando, Evan Price, Kurt Rohde, Michael Formanek, Marco Antonio Mazzini, Nasar Abadey, and Chris Froh.
Very Recent
"Meet Café" performance by Continuum, America's Society, NYC.
"Five Miniatures" recorded by Thelema Trio.
"Song 72" premiere by Noah Getz and Jeffrey Chappell, MOSA, NYC.
"Song 72" released on Albany Records CD by Noah Getz.
Music for documentary "Quamer" featured at: Brooklyn International Film Festival, San Diego International Children’s Film Festival, International Women’s Film Festival of Barcelona, Lucas International Children’s Film Festival of Frankfurt, Dubai International Film Festival, and Festival International du Film pour Enfants de Montréal.
Song 72
Noah Getz (alto sax), Jeffrey Chappell (piano)
Released on Albany Records
Slicing the Beat: Jazz Eighth-Notes as Expressive Microrhythm
This paper examines the expressive connections between melody and microrhythm in jazz, using a digital sound editor to analyze long-short ("swing") eighth-note ratios in recorded excerpts.
Co-winner, Society for Ethnomusicology's Jaap Kunst Prize 2007.
Journal Articles
Slicing the Beat: Jazz Eighth-Notes as Expressive Microrhythm
How Hooker Found His Boogie: A Rhythmic Analysis of a Classic Groove
A Circular Plot for Rhythm Visualization and Analysis
Gridless Beats: Jazz Models and Notated Simulations
An Interview with Martin Matalon
Commentary on "The Power of Anacrusis"
Conference Papers and Posters
Towards a Theory of Tempo Modulation
Spectrographic and Calligraphic Cues in the Identification of Jazz Saxophonists
An Interview with Martin Matalon
One of France's leading composers shares his views on technology, film scoring, and musical aesthetics.
Arimpara
Cannes Film Festival (2003), directed by Murali Nair. Also screened at the following international film festivals: Cannes, Seattle, Melbourne, Dublin, Edinburgh, Vancouver, Pusan, Buenos Aires, Mumbai, Bangkok, Festival of 3 Continents (France), Film by the Sea (Holland), Commonwealth Film Festival (UK), NHK Asian Film Festival (Japan), Film fra Sør (Norway), Festival Internacional de Cine Contemporáneo de la Ciudad de México, Los Angeles Visual Communications Festival, and others.
Time Warps in Early Jazz
A in-depth look at rhythmic elasticity in 1920s jazz.
Forthcoming in Music Theory Spectrum.
Fernando Benadon (b. 1972) is a composer and scholar who thrives on the exploration and integration of diverse paths. The New York Times has praised his music as "engagingly forward" (2001), a "perfect curtainraiser" of "ear-grabbing invention" (2006).
He is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Fromm Commission at Tanglewood, Copland House's Aaron Copland Award, winner of the International Society for Contemporary Music composition competition, and UC-Berkeley's Ladd Prize, which funds a two-year residency in Paris. His music for film was featured at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival and at many other film festivals around the world.
As a scholar, he has published articles on John Lee Hooker's boogie, rhythmic elasticity in 1920s jazz, the visualization of rhythm, and the properties of 'swing' eighth-notes. In 2007 he was awarded the Society for Ethnomusicology’s Jaap Kunst prize for the most significant publication, and in 2008 he was a Fellow at the Mannes Institute for Advanced Studies in Music Theory.
A native of Buenos Aires, Fernando studied jazz at Berklee and composition at UC-Berkeley, earning a Ph.D. in 2004. He is assistant professor of music at American University.
Gridless Beats: Jazz Models and Notated Simulations
Jazz performers shape their rhythms using temporal nuances such as playing behind the beat and subdividing beats asymmetrically. Because such rhythmic sophistication derives from spontaneous invention and not from the dictates of music notation, a composer wishing to emulate these "rhythmic rubatos" faces an interesting technical challenge. In this article, I look at how certain properties of jazz rhythm can be simulated using standard music notation.
Forthcoming in Perspectives of New Music.
for large ensemble
Towards a Theory of Tempo Modulation
Tempo modulation (TM) is defined as a change of tempo by means of a shared durational unit. Since it follows a simple pivotal premise, TM provides an efficient way to achieve rhythmic complexity without imposing a high degree of performance difficulty. By addressing some of the main properties of TM, this paper begins to formulate a general theory that integrates music-theoretic issues within a cognitive framework.
8th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition, 2004.
film score
How Hooker Found His Boogie: A Rhythmic Analysis of a Classic Groove
Blues historians have described John Lee Hooker's boogie as a "rhythmic drone, twisting and turning the sound," a "jumping, polyrhythmic groove" that can "rattle your bones." Hooker himself had difficulty in describing the origins of his boogie: "It’s just there. I can’t explain it. And it just comes out." This paper seeks to unravel some of the boogie's visceral and hypnotic aspects by focusing on its rhythmic properties.
Forthcoming in Popular Music. Co-authored with Ted Gioia.
Hidden Charges
excerpt 1 excerpt 2
Empyrean Ensemble (2006): Noah Getz (sax) & Chris Froh (percussion)
In 3 two
American University (2005): Anne Ament (bass clarinet), Teri Lazar (violin), Nancy Jo Snider ('cello)
for three players
Five Miniatures
excerpt 1 excerpt 2
Thelema Trio (2005): Marco Antonio Mazzini (bass clarinet), Peter Verdonck (baritone saxophone), Ward De Vleeschhouwer (piano)
Absolutes and Relatives in Jazz Microtiming
What temporal laws govern jazz rubatos? This poster provides answers for two special cases: the "delayed downbeat" effect (a soloist's late arrival on the downbeat with respect to the rhythm section) and "malleable isochrony" (a rhythmically uneven rendition of an otherwise isochronous sequence).
Auditory Perception, Cognition, and Action Meeting (2004).
A Circular Plot for Rhythm Visualization and Analysis
This paper describes a graphing method designed to aid the study of rhythm and expressive timing in beat-based music. The circular plot can be used to re-interpret complex rhythms, partition tempo curves, and summarize rhythmic profiles by making beat subdivision details apparent to the naked eye.
Music Theory Online 13:3, 2007.
for alto saxophone & piano
for piano