Friday 27 November 2020

The Cottage: Benjamin Fitzgerald's musical exploration of our safe space

The young neo-classical composer Benjamin Fitzgerald first popped up on the blog with a striking track, Ode to John, which was partly his way of coping with his grandfather's dementia (his grandfather was the John of the title and the track used John's own voice). Now Fitzgerald has released his latest piece, The Cottage. Fitzgerald describes the music as 'a reflection of the manic euphoria of ultimate freedom and the meditative tranquillity of eventual peace', and 'a musical exploration of our safe space. Our own relative haven, exempt of all negativity, criticism, harassment and any other emotional or physical harm.'

The video, directed by Sel Maclean, features some stunning photography of equally stunning scenery in the North-East (where Fitzgerald is from). Fitzgerald play piano and is joined by Ada Francis (harp), Anna Hughes (violin), Merle Habron (violin) and Sam Fox (saxophone). The melodic material has a distinctly folk-ish feel whilst there is also a more insistent modern beat which creates the sense of the journey that the video evokes, yet the underlying melancholia present in Fitzgerald's earlier pieces is still present.

The video is on YouTube, and can be streamed on a variety of music services.

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