Bestiaries - Bekah Simms (2022)
OK, so I admit it: my narrative about 21st century orchestral composers being less about esoteric sturm und drang and more about tunefulness and accessibility might be a bit constructed. There’s certainly still a movement to make difficult and challenging music. Simms is one of those composers.
The Dan Tapper cover art for the record is fantastic, not only on its own but also because its motion and turbulence sum up the approach to the music as well. There is a lot of tension-and-release that is pretty common in all music, but there’s a dark layer underneath it all that is constantly shifting and disorienting.
These pieces have the concert-hall standard of listing what instruments are involved (“Bestiary I & II for amplified soprano and chamber orchestra with live electronics”). I can’t decide if that’s a cheeky way to sound revolutionary, or if it’s just continuing a useful tradition from the concert hall into the modern digital space.
