Today I want to share a contemporary piece entitled Elastic Harmonic by Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy (b. 1970):
Elastic Harmonic and Dennehy’s Style
Elastic Harmonic is not Einaudi. There isn’t a singable melody or anything really familiar about this piece. While Dennehy uses minimalism as a compositional technique, his works do not follow the “modern-classical-music” style. And after listening to Elastic Harmonic, it’s no surprise that critics say “Donnacha Dennehy has a soundworld all of his own”, and his music “unleashes a thrilling musical energy . . . [that] thrums with a savage, unstoppable groove, shouting the unspeakable, seething with emotions that characters are too numb to express.”
Dennehy is known for his unique take on electronic music. Here’s what he has to say about his compositional style:
“I’m interested in creating these pieces of material and then vandalizing them. . . . Once I’ve hit on a few pieces of material that in my mind have “ineluctable modality” . . . then the true business of composition as vandalism begins. I become like a vandal joyriding through my material, oblivious to their separate poignant cries.”
Dennehy subjects all musical material to this treatment. He often takes melodic fragments from the classical repertoire and reshapes rhythms and harmonic progressions in his compositions. Reshaping old musical ideas into fresh new sounds is what he does best.
Musical Analysis
Composed in 2005 for the National Symphony Orchestra and violinist Ioana-Petcu Colan, Elastic Harmonic is a violin concerto that explores contemporary minimalism while pushing musical boundaries. Dennehy describes his compositional style as music with ” a whiff of high-class vandalism”, and that’s what this violin concerto is: a sophisticated and beautiful narrative with grunge elements of driving energy and minimalism.
The violin part is beautiful and strange, combining lyricism with hysteria over a droning and minimalist accompaniment. Orchestral arpeggios alternate with intense percussion to shape the atmosphere. Overall, Elastic Harmonic takes the listener on a journey through all emotions.
Composing with Microtones
One main aspect of Dennehy’s compositional style is his use of microtones: intervals that fall between the steps of the twelve notes in the diatonic scale. Dennehy first honed in this technique in 2002 where he composed a piece that explored microtonality in the form of “elastically shortening quasi-spectral pillars”. Elastic Harmonic expands on this idea, which adds a rawness to the music. The microtones help propel the energy forward in a natural, instinctive way.
Not to be critical, but it sounds like the melodies coming from the different instruments don’t work together. The (cello?) in the foreground doesn’t seem to follow the melody of the instruments in the background. The composer said he wanted to vandalize the music. I think the instruments in a piece should work together.
I can see why you feel that way. This is one thing I love about music – that we can all have our own opinions and interpretations!