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The Australian recorder player, music director and composer, Benjamin Thorn, studied at the Canberra School of Music and the University of Sydney (1979-1990), completing a PhD on The functioning of semiotic nuclei in theatrical analysis in 1987. This has proved to be an amazing ice-breaker at parties but has had little other practical use. He also completed a Diploma of Education as a music teacher. During this period he performed with the Renaissance Players directed by Winsome Evans and was actively composing..
Benjamin Thorn's compositional output includes a range of instrumental, vocal, choral and music theatre works. He has gained world-wide recognition for his works for recorder. In 1986 Pipistrelli gialli was an official Australian submission to the ISCM World Music Days. He edited Recorders at Large, a two-volume collection of mostly Australian recorder music published by Currency Press, which has received considerable critical acclaim. The voice of the crocodile... (published by Moeck Verlag) was a set work for the International Recorder Competition in Karlsruhe in 1992. In 1991, Missa sine verbum won the 2MBS FM Young Composers Award, and Two diagonals and a squiggle the Fellowship of Australian Composers competition, with The voice of the crocodile... being commended in the same competition. Bell Play was performed in the ISCM World Music Days in Belgium in 2012. His music tends to be rhythmically lively and tuneful (though with the odd crunchy bit) and he has been referred to 7/8 Anonymous to cure a marked addiction to that time signature.
Benjamin Thorn has published a number of articles on music and theatre and has been a guest editor of AMC News Vol. 13 (Music for Children) and Sounds Australian Vol. 20 (Virtuosity). For several years he was the administrator of the composer collective Music Performed, organising composer workshops. In 1986-1987 he prepared and presented a 13-part series Hearing the Dots on 2MBS FM. He has edited a number of early 17th Century works by Strozzi, Castello and Caccini for recorder for Saraband music; a volume of Larry Sitsky's piano music for children for Currency Press and is also involved in editing and producing Australian recorder music for Orpheus Music in Armidale (since 1998) who have published a number of his works. Other works have been published by Carus in Germany and Loux in the USA.
His CD "Songs of Love and Marriage", which combines original compositions with works he has edited, was released by MOVE in June 1999. His works also feature on CD's put out by 2MBS-FM, JADE, Orpheus Music and Move. As a performer he has appeared around Australia and in Europe. In 2002 he gave the first solo recital in the Australian Embassy in Paris and was a guest soloist at the European Recorder Teachers Association (ERTA) conference in Germany. His performances often involve theatrical elements, such as dance and audience participation: for instance Farmyard, which requires the audience to make animal noises.
Benjamin Thorn's music has developed several concurrent strands. At one extreme are pieces that explore contemporary techniques (particularly the use of voice, multiphonics and playing two instruments at the same time) while he has also written many pedagogical works, both in contemporary idioms and based upon traditional musics; and elaborations of renaissance works by Ortiz and Amerbach. A strong sense of rhythm and metre is common to much of his music, perhaps best illustrated in Time Pieces, a set of short quartets that range from 5/8 to 13/8. Many of his pieces have whimsical titles, which are intended to intrigue and puzzle performers and audiences. Usually they come after the composition has been completed, and are based partly on possible images that the music might suggest, so that any attempt to be too programmatic in interpretation is probably a fallacy. Though interestingly enough some people find serendipitous elements that the composer was completely oblivious to. For instance people have heard machine guns in The Great Emu War (which refers to the attempt in 1932 to use the army to control a plague of emus in WA).
The voice of the crocodile is simply a paraphrase of a text from the Song of Songs (the voice of the turtle is heard in the land) with a change of reptile (yes he does know that that is in fact a turtle dove!); and people have imagined being attacked by crocodiles during the piece. Chocolate Bulbul is a piece that could be birdlike but is perhaps a bit manufactured and not quite natural. Forestry in New England suggested to some early hearers a sense of growing things (and perhaps axes?). When Renate Fischer choreographed a dance to this work she performed the entire piece with a ladder in several configurations. Purple Pavans Perhaps is a set of dance like movements but with an unusual colouration. The PPP idea then generated an FFF one in Fricasseed Frogs for Felicity, which like the Pavans is essentially a concerto for a solo instrument with accompaniment from a choir of recorders. The Croutons series of works are sets of short crunchy movements for solo instruments. We Hate Brussels Sprouts simply provides a text for the rhythm of the main motif (as well as being an amusing idea for young players). Some titles are actually quite self explanatory, such as Songs for my father's wedding, and Where's the other one? a piece for two recorders but only one player, and Duetto ultimo, the duet to end all duets with both players having to play two recorders simultaneously and sing, and Bouncing which uses antiphonal effects between too choirs of instruments.
Benjamin Thorn is the Artistic Director of the New England Bach Festival (founded in 2003; biennial since 2004). He has performed as a soloist and with a number of groups around Australia, , including with the Sydney Elizabethan Orchestra and the Renaissance Players. In 1993 he joined the trio Dolcimelo with Wayne Madden and fellow recorder player Christine lucerne. The group has performed concerts in Tasmania each year since then. He conducted many workshops for schools and other groups.
His other interests include theatre. He has written music for a number of theatrical performances including versions of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Charlotte's Web. He has directed a number of amateur theatrical productions and has written several plays including Apotheosis and Roger and Julie (the geriatric version of Romeo and Juliet). As a visual artist he has had a solo exhibition of collages: Assemblies, at the New England Regional Art Museum, and his work OW is part of the collection of the Museum of Printing, Armidale.
Since none of the above activities pay particularly well, Benjamin Thorn has worked as a research person at NPITC, mainly in the field of education (1990-2000) and training and as a TAFE teacher (1988-1997), and currently lectures in Creative Arts Education at the University of New England (since 2008). He was also a researcher for the National Printing Industry Training Council (1991-2003), where he was responsible for the first Graphic Arts Industry Training Package. He was the curator of the Museum of Printing at NERAM-New England Regional Art Museum (1999-2006). He is based in Armidale, New South Wales. |
