Benedict Mason

Benedict Mason ( born February 23, 1954) is a British composer.

Life and work

Mason studied from 1971 to 1975 at King's College at the University of Cambridge, and 1975-1978 he was a student at the Royal College of Art in professional film studies. It was not until early 30's he began to compose, and his first work ( Hinterstoisser Traverse, 1986), attracted attention within the European new music scene. His early compositions have a tendency to post-modernism, but Mason later developed an interest in polyrhythmic music. In Double Concerto can be a gewissene, stylistic affinity to the late works of György Ligeti find. Newer compositions depend on the spatial dimensions of music: for example, his "Music for the European Concert Halls " series.

Mason composed in various genres and his opera Playing Away, with a libretto by Howard Brenton, was commissioned by the Munich Biennale has commissioned and premiered in 1994 by Opera North.

1992 Mason was awarded the Music Foundation Award of Siemens Music Prize of the Ernst von Siemens.

Further Reading

• Kennedy, Michael ( 2006). The Oxford Dictionary of Music, ISBN 0-19-861459-4
• Toop, Richard ( 2001). " Mason, Benedict ". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition, ed. by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
• Toop, Richard ( 2004). "Research, shaping, Fantasy: The British composer Benedict Mason ". New Journal of Music 165, No. 6 (November- December ): pp. 58-59.