TROUBADOUR MUSIC

Richard Rodney Bennett (who used his full name because he discovered that there was a Richard Bennett involved in music) began his career as a student of Serialism and the Avant Garde under Pierre Boulez in 1950's Paris. He later used more traditional tonality and achieved popularity with his scores for the films "Far from the Madding Crowd" (1967), "Murder on the Orient Express" (1974) and "Four Weddings and a Funeral" (1994). Latterly, he turned his back on avant garde music and after moving to New York in 1979, became increasingly identified with the composers of the Great American Songbook. This lead to cabaret style performances with Eartha Kitt, Marian Montgomery and Claire Martin and, considered with his earlier career, explains the Telegraph Obituary writer's observation that Richard Rodney Bennett was "...one of the hardest composers of the 20th century to pigeonhole."

His "Troubadour Music" of 2006 is yet another departure. The troubadours were the "singer/songwriters" of southern France in the early Medieval period who travelled about and sang of the frustrations of courtly love. Bennett chose the thirteenth century melody "Voulez vous que je vous chant....." ("Would you like me to sing to you....") as the basis for his composition and it was first performed by the dedicatee, Chris Richards at the Wigmore Hall in 2008.

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