Frank Denyer’s works draw from many sources. In the 1970s, he did ethnomusicological fieldwork with the Pokot tribe in Kenya. Studying at Wesleyan, he encountered musical giants Morton Feldman and John Cage, with Harry Partch providing undoubted additional influence. Hand-made instruments are a standard feature in his compositions. Combined with a Feldman-like approach to time, he displays an acute sensitivity to timbre and a determination never to conform to what is expected. Overlooked until recent shifts in musical taste, his distinctive works are becoming increasingly visible. His first recording on the label another timbre, of “The Fish that became the Sun,” is due out this fall, and a recent concert showed that there is obvious appetite for Denyer’s work. The late, eminent musicologist Bob Gilmore said, “There are signs today of a counter-trend, the growing recognition by a number of contemporary musicians that the body of work Denyer has created over the past 40 years is—just maybe—one of the better-kept secrets of English music. ”I started by asking him about his recent orchestra works “The Colours of Jellyfish” (2010) and “Linear Topography” (2016)—before these, he’d always insisted he would never write for orchestra.
A Conception of Time
An interview with Frank Denyer
