Selected Compositions & Improvisation Projects
Twelve Études
Composed over a ten-year period, Twelve Études explore, through what Dwyer describes as 'hidden pedagogy', the challenges that 20th- and 21st-century music presents to the modern guitarist technically and interpretatively. They are described by guitarist Fabio Zanon as the ‘summation of an entire guitar epoch’. Below left is a video of the full score of the Twelve Études in a recording by Benjamin Dwyer (released on Gamelan Records in 2008). On the right is a video of the renowned Greek guitarist Smaro Gregoriadou performing Book I (Études 1, 2 & 3).
In Memoriam Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is a 20-minute work for orchestra composed in 2009 soon after the death of the Indian Vedic spiritual leader. The work was premiered by the USP Filarmônica de Ribeirão Preto (Brazil) conducted by Rubens Russomanno Ricciardi. This performance was given by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland 29 April 2022 under the baton of Stefan Asbury at the National Concert Hall for the New Music Dublin festival.
five disjecta (after Beckett) for solo guitar seek to explore in music facets of Beckett’s late work—an aesthetic of impoverishment, semantic deconstruction, and a yearning for silence. This led me into areas exploring techniques often deemed ‘incompatible with art’, employing sounds considered ‘unusable’ by composers, shifting from reliance upon traditional semantic constructions towards methods whereby minute entities are mined for the utmost meaning. Silence- orientated procedures replace conventional motific development. Figurations reappearing in different contexts offer different meanings and perspectives. Established vocabularies are at times abandoned in favour of fractured schemata, deconstructed ‘languages’, gesture-generated sounds, and a host of traditionally rejected sonorities and noises. This is a Dreamsong Film directed by Jonathan C. Creasy.
Guitar Quintet (for guitar and string quartet) was composed in 2003 (revised 2009). It is a version of Dwyer's Concerto No. 1 for Guitar and Strings, which was composed in 1998 (revised in 2008). It was premiered with the composer performing with the Callino Quartet (UK) at the National Concert Hall Dublin in 2009, and was recorded soon after that. It is recorded on Dwyer's CD Irish Guitar Works: Benjamin Dwyer & the Callino Quartet (Cortijo Records, 2012).
SacrumProfanum is an hour-long multimedia work for amplified viola, flutes (alto, C, piccolo, and tin whistle), medieval Irish harp, bowed guitar, and tape. It was composed especially for violist Garth Knox, flautist Emma Coulthard, harpist Siobhán Armstrong with the composer on bowed guitar. SacrumProfanum explores the enigmatic stone carvings found in Ireland and parts of Britain known as Sheela-na-gigs. Dwyer spent ten years travelling across the country studying, photographing and sketching these mysterious figures. Responding artistically through the Sheela ‘as witness’, Dwyer has created a unique work exploring themes such as feminism, colonialism, dispossession, identity, religion, rite, sexuality and the disintegration of Gaelic culture. In a score that combines contemporary music interfacing with traditional Irish materials, instruments and sean-nós singing, SacrumProfanum offers perceptive critiques of contemporary exploitations of Irish culture. HAG, for amplified flute and bowed guitar, is the 7th of eleven movements in SacrumProfanum, and is perhaps the most explicit and abject—the flautist embodies the Sheela, expressing her anger and defiance through a visceral dramatic narrative performed through the instrument, which is echoed and amplified by the (mostly) improvised bowed-guitar playing.
password: sacrum
Tombeau sur la mort the Claude Debussy was commissioned by Térèse Fahy and the Ireland's Tombeau to Debussy festival in 2018. The work was premiered at the National Concert Hall in Dublin and subsequently performed in Paris at the Centre Culturel Irlandais. The work is based on the third of Debussy's Douze Études, 'pour les quartes'. It is dedicated to Térèse Fahy.
Barry Guy’s composition The Blue Shroud is an homage to the painting Guernica by Pablo Picasso. It is for the people of the Basque town who were victims of the Nazi German air force bombardment during the Spanish Civil War. Guy also wants us to remember the occasion in 2003, when the Guernica-tapestry at the UN Security Council was obscured by a blue drape as Colin Powell made the case for invading Iraq. The strength of art against the power of the military, government and the media is a central theme.
Benjamin Dwyer is the guitarist with the Blue Shroud Band (Barry Guy: double bass, Director; Savina Yannatou: voice; Agustí Fernández: piano; Maya Homburger: violin; Fanny Paccoud: viola; Percy Pursglove: trumpet; Torben Snekkestad: soprano saxophone and reed trumpet; Michael Niesemann: alto saxophone and oboe; Per Texas Johansson: tenor saxophone and clarinet; Julius Gabriel: baritone saxophone; Marc Unternährer: tuba; Lucas Niggli: percussion; and Ramón López: percussion).
The film, The Blue Shroud: Live in London is a Dreamsong Film directed by Jonathan C. Creasy. It was filmed live in the Purcell Room, Southbank Centre for the 2019 EFG London Jazz Festival. It was produced by Neil Guerin, Jonathan C. Creasy, and Maya Homburger. ‘The Blue Shroud might just be the crowning achievement in Barry Guy’s long and varied career’ (The New York City Jazz Record).
KnowingUnknowing
This is an improvised triptych for dance and amplified guitar (Helen Kindred dancer, Benjamin Dwyer guitar, prepared guitar, bowed guitar, 2016). Inspired by various texts by Samuel Beckett, Ted Hughes and Martin Heidegger, KnowingUnknowing explores the liminal spaces between the body and the zones it occupies, the conscious and the unconscious, movement and stillness, sound and silence, sight and gesture. This film version of KnowingUnknowing is the result of an unedited, one-off improvised performance with dancer, guitarist and improvising filmmaker Pete Gomes. The film features on the Farpoint Recordings label in a CD/DVD entitled KnowingUnknowing.
Umwelt V
improvisation for solo guitar (2020)
This is a film of a solo free improvisation recorded on 3 August 2020 in a studio in Dublin by filmmaker Lucía Dwyer. This improvisation makes use of prepared guitar techniques devised by Dwyer and features his use of a bow and other techniques. By deconstructing the instrument, new, hidden instruments have been liberated; new compositional possibilities have been unleashed.
Umwelt V is part part of Dwyer's Umwelten ('environments') series, which emerged out of his responses to the psychological, emotional and physical effects the Covid-19 lockdown. These pieces also engage with the proposition of Umwelt Theory at the core of current biosemiotics, which explores the latitudes and limits of human consciousness and perception.
New Pathways in Improvisation@MDX is a hybrid conference-performance event devised and directed by Benjamin Dwyer and hosted by Middlesex University. Its core focus is exploring through performance and intellectual inquiry the value of improvisation within interdisciplinary and intercultural contexts. Here, Dwyer performs improvisations with (on the left) Charlotte Hug (viola, composer, artist) and Nick Roth (saxophonist, composer and writer); and on the right, he improvises with Olesya Zdorovetska (singer and dramatist).
Dwyer with Lucas Niggli (percussion) and Nick Roth (saxophone): free improvisation (no title) performed at the Breaking the Sound Barrier symposium at Middlesex University, 23 June 2015.
Nick Roth (saxophone) and Dwyer perform Improvisation for Barry Guy at the Different Voices book launch concert at Smock Alley Theatre Dublin on 6 November 2014.
Complete Catalogue
Five Sicilian Preludes
solo guitar (25') 2020
Hommage à Ligeti
solo guitar (23') 2020
Umwelten V
solo guitar improvisation (22') 2020
Umwelten I-IV
bass clarinet & accordion (18') 2020
five disjecta (after Beckett)
solo guitar (14') 2019
what is the word (triptych with interludes)
guitar (prepared guitar), violin, double bass and narrator (32')
(text: Samuel Beckett) 2019
six residua (after Beckett)
solo violin (18') 2019
SacrumProfanum
amplified viola, flutes, medieval Irish harp, bowed guitar & tape (55') 2018
Tombeau sur la mort de Claude Debussy
guitar (6') 2018
Sobre los Ángeles
soprano and guitar, prepared guitar (one player)
(text: Rafael Alberti)
30' (2017)
KnowingUnknowing
amplified guitar, prepared guitar (one player) and dancer
(improvised composition and choreography)
30' (2016)
Nocturnal, after Benjamin Britten
piano trio
23' (2015)
jouissance…
shakuhachi
13' (2013)
Étude
Piano
6’ (2013)
imagines obesae et aspectui ingratae
(from SacrumProfanum)
viola
20' (2013)
Umbilical
Baroque violin, double bass, harpsichord, tape
(optional Butoh dancer)
55' (2011)
Scenes from Crow
amplified mixed ensemble, soprano, tape
45' (2009)
Dos estudios avanzados
guitar
8' (2008, 2012)
Eight Simple Studies
guitar
8' (2008, 2012)
Twelve Studies
guitar
8' (2008, 2012)
Crow
amplified flute (with sliding head-joint), tape
13' (version 2010)
In Memoriam Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
3222 422, timpani, 3 percussion, harp, piano, celeste, strings
20' (2009)
Four Japanese Prints
amplified bass flute, alto flute, flute, piccolo (one player), amplified piano
10' (2009)
Sueños Lentos (Sloe Dreams) [Portrait]
piano
4' (2009)
Twelve Études for Guitar
guitar
44' (2008)
Concerto No. 2 for Guitar and Orchestra
29' (2007, revised 2022)
Passacaille
Baroque violin, harpsichord
7' (2007)
Night Words
accordion, bass clarinet
11' (2007)
Homenaje a Maurice Ohana
piano
12' (1997, 2006)
Piano Trio II
violin, piano, cello
17' (2007)
Al-Andalus
flute (doubling bass flute), clarinet (doubling bass clarinet), accordion, violin, cello, percussion
14' (2005)
Tango para dos
2 guitars
5' (2005)
Líneas
violin, 8-string guitar
5' (2005)
Movimientos I-IV
violin, piano
20' (2007)
Apuntes sin títulos I-IV
guitar
10' (2005)
Voces Críticas
guitar
16' (2004)
Afterjoyce I
flute, percussion, live electronics
5' (2004)
Guitar Quintet
guitar, string quartet
18' (2003)
Apuntes
piano
11' (2002)
Crow’s Vanity
amplified cello, tape
8' (2000)
Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra: Rajas, Sattva, Tamas
percussion solo, 2222 2210, timpani, 3 percussion, harp, piano, strings
23' (2000)
Crow
amplified flute (doubling piccolo), tape
13' (1999)
Crow
amplified tenor recorder, tape
13' (1999)
Concerto No. 1 for Guitar and Strings
guitar and strings
18' (1998, revised 2008)
Piano Trio I: Quasi una fantasia
violin, cello, piano
13' (1998)
Quasi una fantasia
soprano saxophone, violin, piano
13' (1998)
Quasi una fantasia
clarinet, violin, piano
13' (1998)
Quasi una fantasia
piano
12' (1997, rev. 2006)
Parallaxis
soprano saxophone, alto saxophone
8' (1996)
Canción y Tango
for soprano saxophone, guitar
8' (1995, 2003)
Canción y Tango
for guitar
8' (1995, 2003)
Canción y Tango
for flute, guitar
8' (1995, 2003)
Soneto del Amor Oscuro
flute (doubling alto and sliding flutes), percussion
15' (1995, 2011)
Soneto del Amor Oscuro
oboe, percussion
15' (1995)
Song for Her (Canción para Ella)
flute, guitar
3' (1995)
Song for Her (Canción para Ella)
soprano saxophone, guitar
3' (1995)
Song for Her (Canción para Ella)
2 guitars
3' (1995)
Song for Her (Canción para Ella)
guitar
3' (1995)
In Memoriam
ssaa
4' (1995)
Omeros
4 guitars (amplified)
12' (1994, 2004)
Tiento
soprano saxophone, piano
13' (1994)
Sonata for Tenor Recorder and Guitar
tenor recorder, guitar
13' (1994, 1997)
Sonata for Flute and Guitar
flute, guitar
13' (1994, 1997)
Sonata for Oboe and Guitar
oboe, guitar
13' (1994)
Two Mahon Songs
mezzo, cello
7' (1994, 1995)
Two Mahon Songs
high voice, cello
7' (1994, 1995)
Prakriti
alto saxophone
15' (1993, 1995)