Name: Flashes and Flames by Ben Keene
Duration: 4 min 32 s
Description: Fireworks are used throughout the world as a means of representing togetherness, celebration, and joy. Flashes and Flames is a musical depiction of fireworks and all the emotions that they embody. Through the use of the Lydian mode, upward motion, and a lively pace this work not only represents the idea of fireworks themselves but also the excitement and energy of those who sit and watch.

Watty Chicken Sandwich Deluxe Ft. Henny God, Yung Spida, Prod. mart.wrld

EDGES is inspired by several events in my life over the period of 1995-97.  Two are near-death experiences, while the third is the sudden passing of one of my closest colleagues and best friends, Professor Robert Cooper.  

The first movement, "BACK FROM THE EDGE", is a chronicle of the battle that I waged with "flesh-eating strep", which nearly cost me my life in spring, 1995.  A fragment of a line from French playwright Jean Genet’s “Prisoner of Love” served as additional inspiration: 

 “perhaps all music, even the newest, is not so much something discovered as something that re-emerges from where it lay in memory, inaudible as a melody cut in a disc of flesh.  A composer lets me hear a song that has always been shut up silent within me.”

In a sense, my life has re-emerged from where it lay, for a while, silent, in memory.

Movement II, "POSTCARDS", is inspired by my mentor and friend, composer Donald Erb, who had his own near-death experience about a year later in the same Ithaca, New York hospital (a bizarre coincidence).  I know that he shared many of the mental aberrations I experienced during the recovery process, and POSTCARDS reflects the strange visions, the elusive but more and more frequent moments of clarity, and the eventual return to reality that such experiences create.  For me, in retrospect, these thoughts were like vivid postcards of other realities, sent to me by another part of my mind and filtered through the pain, the fear, and the medications that I had been given.  There was also a highly obsessive quality to my thoughts during the reco-very, which is reflected in the primary melodic material which simply refuses to disappear, though it changes colors, dynamics, and tempos at every turn.

Postcards -- real postcards, that is -- also played a role in my experiences.  While recovering, I received a post card (often of questionable taste) every two or three days from Don.  When it was his turn to be in recovery, it was my turn to send him postcards (equally questionable)...they seem now to me to be a lifeline to reality from people who are eager to welcome us back.

A quote was inspirational for this second movement as well, this time from Hermann Hesse’s Damien:

“In each individual the spirit is made flesh, in each one the whole of creation suffers, in each one a Savior is crucified.”

The final movement is a reflection on the amazing, wonderful, and sometimes difficult life of my colleague, Robert Cooper.  Robert had, without a doubt, the speediest metabolism of anyone I have ever known.  Lunch with Robert could be defined as both of us eating for the first five minutes and Robert watching me finish eating for the last 45.  Robert had two computers in his office and a phone; often all three were busy at once, while he carried on at least one additional conversation with whomever was present.  Yet Robert had great depth too.  He was a living example to students and colleagues, especially in facing life’s travails with courage and conviction.  He was also funny as hell.  I suppose that Robert’s pace was impossible to sustain, and in fact he died suddenly at age 45 on September 18, 1997. 

No quotations needed with this movement.  This one’s for you, man.


EDGES Movement I Back from the Edge for wind ensemble

Fireworks are used throughout the world as a means of representing togetherness, celebration, and joy. Flashes and Flames is a musical depiction of fireworks and all the emotions that they embody. Through the use of the Lydian mode, upward motion, and a lively pace this work not only represents the idea of fireworks themselves but also the excitement and energy of those who sit and watch.

Flashes and Flames

Duration: ca. 7'
Performed by U.S. Coast Guard Band (Live Performance), Richard Wyman, Conductor
For more information: https://robertpaterson.com/firecracker-alley
Publisher - Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&keyword=firecracker

PROGRAM NOTES
Growing up, one of my favorite pastimes was setting off firecrackers with friends. We knew our parents wouldn't approve and would punish us if they found out—which made it all the more exciting—so we would meet in a secluded neighborhood alley. We had all sorts of firecrackers with crazy sounding names like Thunder Bombs, Crrackfires, Cherry Bombs, Sonic Booms, and so on, not to mention bottle rockets.

Setting off firecrackers made us feel empowered. We were literally playing with fire and knew we were doing something dangerous—after all, we could lose a finger, or even an eye—but it was exciting all the same. We would purchase fireworks from shops across the Canadian border where they were legal. Or, more accurately, we would find teenagers with cars and a penchant for mischief; they had quite a racket selling fireworks on the sly to younger kids in the neighborhood.

Part of the fun in creating Firecracker Alley was figuring out which effects sound firecracker-like. Of course, I call for multiple slapsticks, but there are also loud drums, rim shots, whistles, lines in the winds that are reminiscent of bottle rockets. Through it all, there are fanfare-like brass passages that capture the excitement and joy of setting off firecrackers.

Firecracker Alley for Wind Band (Live)

Pulse Train (2010), for flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, percussion, and piano.
Performance by the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, conducted by Sydney Hodkinson.

Pulse Train

With an incessantly dark, ritualistic quality coupled with a metallic sparkle, "Magic" takes its title from the concept of magic as a powerful and unknowable cosmic force, and the awe – and potentially fear – that may be felt in its presence.

Copyright © 2020 C. Alan Publications, LLC | All Rights Reserved
http://c-alanpublications.com/magic/

Purchase Sheet Music

Magic (percussion octet) - Harrison Collins

Performed by the New York Philharmonic Brass Quintet.

"Gravity" by Anthony Barfield

Inspired by the power of storytelling, aspiring composer Ben Keene looks to tell dynamic and powerful stories through his music. Ben started his musical journey in second grade when he started taking violin lessons, studying with Dr. Casey McGrath, Carl Johnston, and Dr. Igor Kalin. Ben then started band in 5th grade picking up the clarinet, and currently studies with Dr. David Gresham. Ben continues to regularly perform on both clarinet and violin in a wide range of ensembles from band, orchestra, and small chamber groups. 



It was not until high school when Ben started taking composition seriously.  Since then Ben has written primarily for wind instruments  in chamber settings but has plans to eventually write for large ensembles as well as chorus, and strings. 



Ben is currently studying at Illinois State University with Dr. Alex Stephenson, Dr. Carl Schimmel, and Dr. Roy Magnuson, with additional help from Steve Danyew, Todd Stalter, and Dr. Jennifer Jolley.  He is pursing a degree in music composition and music education.

Flashes and Flames

Ben Keene

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