CompositionS

“One of the challenges for any contemporary composer is to discover a compositional style and language which has a distinct nature. The radical and far-reaching changes in 20th century music have brought us to a point where one might question what remains to be done. This, perhaps, has particular relevance to the continued use of tonality as a compositional force. My belief, which has been demonstrated by many composers since the advent of atonality, is that the tonal, or at least the poly-tonal world, is far from exhausted. What I admire most in the work of other composers, and have used as the main ingredients for my own compositions, are colour and texture. I believe these to be essential elements in establishing mood and atmosphere, and crucial in any successful and reflective setting of a text.”

David Bednall’s compositional language is a result of a number of diverse influences. His love of late-romantic and 20th music is very apparent, as is his interest in emotive and evocative effects to communicate the text fully to listeners. Much of his recent music has been for choirs and his exceptionally wide field of musical tastes combined with considerable experience in the Cathedral Choral Tradition make for an exciting and reinvigorating approach to liturgical choral writing. Major inspirations include R. Strauss, Puccini, Ravel, Vaughan Williams, Howells and Cochereau. However his writing is no pastiche of these styles, but a distinctive and varied synthesis of these harmonic and rhetorical characteristics. Within his distinctive harmonic language there is considerable variety, from dense and evocative mysticism to innocent exuberance to timeless serenity. He is always interested in finding something distinctive and new in texts while never resorting to mere novelty or effect.

Copies of all works are available to purchase direct from the composer. Please click here to contact him.