Bend/Boogie/Break (2018)

for flute, clarinet/bass clarinet, violin, cello, percussion, and keyboard

Duration: 10’30”

Commissioned by Penny Le Couteur and Greg Dickson, and first performed by Ensemble Offspring

Program Note

The title Bend/Boogie/Break describes the character of three recurring ideas in the work:

• Bend refers to the use of glissandi and pitch bends (particularly strings)

• Boogie refers to the underlying funk bass

• 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.  

Reviews & Words

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. She is able to draw on her knowledge from playing a range of diverse instruments in a variety of settings when composing. bend/boogie/break explores all these facets…. For example, the marriages she sets up of like-minded instruments is lovely; strings for example, and then woodwind with beautiful balancing of their voices, sometimes rhythmically synchronised and at others with an interplay between melodic and counter-melodic forces. The rhythm, the boogie, achieves the playfulness that is hallmark Harrison, and it continually sustains the deviations, the unpredictable in the piece. The use of crescendos on individual notes, the pitch-bending and glissandi also feature here. The use of vibraphone and woodblock is fabulous. Harrison’s work is divided into three sections. One could try to clearly define these as bend, boogie and break, but that would fail to capture the prevalence of all three dimensions in all sections. Harrison always demonstrates a clear trajectory in her work despite her adventurousness. It’s fabulous, uplifting music. 

(Mandy Stefanakis, Loudmouth)

The curtain-raiser was Holly Harrison’s third work in a series composed for Ensemble Offspring commissioned by Penny Le Couteur and Greg Dickson, 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. Full article here.

(Angus McPherson, Limelight)

Performances

1 June 2024, Elder Music Lab, Nicole Marshall, She Speaks, Elder Conservatorium, Adelaide, SA

18 April 2024, Sydney Conservatorium New Music Ensemble, Sam Weller, Sydney Conservatorium, NSW

10 December 2023, MSO Academy/Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, VIC

24 April 2023, Musique 21, Michigan State University, Fairchild Theatre, East Lansing, MI, USA, 7:30pm - US Premiere

14 October 2022, Ensemble Offspring, Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Mount Lawley, WA

16 July 2022, Ensemble Offspring, Carriageworks, Eveleigh, NSW

6 September 2019, Ensemble Offspring, Gaudeamus Muziekweek, Hertz- TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht, The Netherlands

29 September 2018, Ensemble Offspring, Spectral Tech, Sydney Conservatorium - World Premiere