richard vodden’s blog

One of the most exciting pieces I have listened to in quite a while is Karl Jenkins “The Armed Man : A Requiem for Peace”. Karl Jenkins is best known as a Jazz Musician and plays (amongst other things) Piano, Oboe, Soprano and Baritone Sax.
The Armed Man definately reflects this is its syncopated themes, but its its juxtaposition of traditional choral tonality against a more modern sound in the orchestral accompaniment which really interests me. Throughout the piece Jenkins uses techniques reminiscent of John Williams to the point that, listening to the Sanctus, a collegue of mine commented “It sounds like the kind of thing you might hear while Indiana Jones is doing something quite exciting, not very exciting, but quite exciting”. The brass writing is nothing short of magic and combined with his gorgeous use of choral harmony the piece stands as one of the most original compositions of the last decade – definately worth a listen.

Much as I dislike posts which simply exist to inform people that I’m still posting, I feel it is necessary, as I’ve not posted for ages!

Several things have happened in the gap. One of the more interesting was a Christmas party held by a clarinet player called Sharon, at which I met a fella who is the brother of a ‘Cellist called Sophie. He write a webpage called Toilet Scroll which is rather amusing – go and have a look!