Ben Webster (1997)

Introduction:
Ben Webster is an incoming junior at the University of Miami, where he majors in music composition. He is originally from Wrentham, Massachusetts, where his love of music began. In fourth grade he needed to pick an instrument to learn and he picked the clarinet. He loved it so much that he still plays it to this day. He is a beginner pianist and saxophone player. He started to become interested in composition junior year of high school, and took classes senior year in composition. Transitioning into college was easy for him, because he decided his major early. Along this journey, he discovered that he is not interested in performance, but composition only. He pulls his influence from many different places including classical music, as well as, today's alternative. He spends his time listening to his favorite bands, Bon Iver, Chance the Rapper, and Mumford & Sons. Each band has something unique about their sound that he finds so influential. At this point in his life, he has successfully composed 13 pieces.

Ben's Piece:
"Manchester Movements" (2017): World Premiere, performed by Transient Canvas

The Piece We Heard (Ben's Thoughts):
He explains the process as a difficult one for many reasons. He found it challenging to write for two instruments and having them work together to make a piece. Another difficult aspect he was faced with was the time restraints. He was only given from February to April to write the piece. He experienced many times where he thought "well, now what?" and hit dead ends many times. He found some parts of the experience tedious, like writing out the music and seeing what works and what did not. He said the worst part was that the piece did not come together until a few weeks before it going up. Though many things were hard for him, he also found ease in other aspects of the work. He discovered his concept early on, which led to the inspiration for the whole piece. His concept is, the idea of being consumed in an emotional state, whether it be grief, happiness, or anything, and having this state being wrapped in itself by the contrast of the instruments. Ben found it really fun to write for the marimba, because he had done it before. He was already familiar with the types of sounds it could make and he knew exactly what sounds he wanted. The bass clarinet was also fun for him to write for, because of his love for the instrument. The clarinet is dear to him, and writing a piece for it was easy for him. He figured out the structure of the piece in his head before even writing any notes down, which led it to be easier to hear on the piano what he wanted. Once it was time for it to be performed, he admitted to have been very nervous, but extremely happy with the outcome.

Observations I Made:
There are two movements in Ben's piece. He was able to manipulate the instruments in sounding like one another and playing the same parts. It is very slow, with each beat strategically placed. There are a use of bows with the marimba making an echo like sound. There are harsh sounds coming from the bass clarinet, mixing with prettier sounds coming from the marimba. The two instruments are working together to create one chord, which is a very beautiful outcome. There are stresses on the first and third notes of every phrase, giving it a sense of urgency. The second movement is much faster, but uses the same kinds of techniques from the first movement. It is clear that these two movements are very different emotions he is trying to portray. There is a very musical chord progression in this second movement. I also noticed that the first movement focused on the bass clarinet, where the second movement had a focus on the marimba. Overall, a very beautiful piece, that has so many interesting techniques and qualities about it.

Works Cited:
Interview with Ben Webster, on June 1, 2017