Martyn Bennett
Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox musical artist Martyn Bennett (17 February 1971 – 30 January 2005) was a Canadian-Scottish musician who was influential in the evolution of modern Celtic fusion, a blending of traditional Celtic and modern music. He was a piper, violinist, composer and producer. Diagnosis of serious illness at the age of thirty curtailed his live performances, although he completed a further two albums in the studio. He died from cancer in 2005, fifteen months after the release of his fifth album Grit.
Early lifeEdit
He was born Martyn Bennett-Knight in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.<ref name = "Scotsman obituary">Template:Cite news</ref> His father, Ian Knight, was a Welsh geologist and musician.<ref name="Scotsman 7Dec2003">Template:Cite news</ref> His mother was Margaret Bennett, a singer and folklorist who was born on Skye.<ref name="Herald obituary">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="BBC-rebirth-grit">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His grandfather, George Bennett, was also an enthusiastic piper.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Martyn Bennett spent the first five years of his life in the Codroy Valley, where Gaelic and traditional music were parts of the local culture.<ref name = "BBCfearless">Template:Cite news</ref> The family then moved to Quebec.<ref name = "telegraph">Template:Cite news</ref> However, his parents separated when he was six and his mother moved back to Scotland, taking him with her.<ref name="Guardian obituary">Template:Cite news</ref> They stayed briefly on Mull, before moving to Kingussie, where he had his first lessons in playing the Great Highland bagpipe from David Taylor, who was also his history teacher.<ref name="Scotsman 7Dec2003"/><ref name="BBC-rebirth-grit"/> By the age of twelve he was winning junior piping competitions.<ref name = "Scotsman obituary"/><ref name="Herald obituary"/>
EducationEdit
At the age of fifteen he moved to Edinburgh with his mother. He won a place at the City of Edinburgh Music School, the first traditional musician to do so.<ref name="Scotsman 5Dec2015">Template:Cite news</ref> During the three years that he studied there he also learned piano and violin.<ref name = "Scotsman obituary"/> In 1990 he began violin and piano studies at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) in Glasgow,<ref name="Guardian obituary"/> where he met Kirsten Thomson, a piano student in the year above him, who joined him in a band and later became his wife.<ref name="Scotsman 18Mar2012">Template:Cite news</ref> During the final year of his studies he was diagnosed with testicular cancer, but he recovered after six months of treatment and graduated in 1993.<ref name="Scotsman 7Dec2003"/>
CareerEdit
Bennett was influenced by the early 1990s dance music scene and regularly attended clubs.<ref name = "telegraph"/> He worked with Martin Swan’s Mouth Music project,<ref name="Independent obituary"/> combining traditional Gaelic songs and music with contemporary instruments.<ref name="Scotsman 8Jan2006">Template:Cite news</ref> He made his debut at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on 14 January 1994 supporting them.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Bennett was a teenager when Swan had first spotted him playing.<ref name="Scotsman 4Jan2006">Template:Cite news</ref>He took part in the summer festival of the city of Nantes in historic Brittany (France) in July 1994, perhaps his first concert outside the UK.
He released his first album, the eponymous Martyn Bennett, in 1995 on Eclectic, a small Edinburgh-based independent label.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Herald 17May2014">Template:Cite news</ref> He had recorded the album in just seven days<ref name = "telegraph"/> at Castle Sound studios in Pencaitland.<ref name = "Scotsman obituary"/> Floret Silva Undique uses a poem by Hamish Henderson, who commented "What brave new music".<ref name="Scotsman 22Mar2012">Template:Cite news</ref> The album had a "dramatic" impact on Scottish music.<ref name = "telegraph"/> He provided the live musical score for David Harrower’s play Knives in Hens.<ref name="Herald 5Jun1995">Template:Cite news</ref> He performed at the party held at Stirling Castle for the European premier of the movie Braveheart on 3 September 1995.<ref name="Independent obituary"/> He was back performing in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in January 1996.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> After writing scores for stage and television, he went on tour to America, supporting Wolfstone.<ref name = "telegraph"/> He played at Edinburgh Hogmanay events in 1995 and 1996.<ref name = "telegraph"/>
He released Bothy Culture in 1998 on the Rykodisc label.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> One composition Hallaig takes its name from the poem by the Gaelic bard Sorley MacLean, incorporating a sample of MacLean reading the poem. Bothy culture topped the US college radio charts.<ref name="Guardian obituary"/> The album came close to winning a Mercury Music Prize nomination.<ref name="Independent obituary">Template:Cite news</ref>
He sported dreadlocks, an image that fitted with the musical and cultural boundaries that he was crossing.<ref name="Bella">Template:Cite news</ref> At times he was characterised as "the techno piper".<ref name = "Scotsman obituary"/><ref name="Scotsman 7Dec2003"/><ref name="BBC-rebirth-grit"/><ref name="Scotsman 22Mar2012"/><ref name="Scotsman 11Mar2005">Template:Cite news</ref> He played at T in the Park in 1998.<ref name="Independent 2 Feb 2005">Template:Cite news</ref> Scottish celebrities attended his performance at the Buddha Bar in Paris, ahead of Scotland playing Brazil in the opening match of the 1998 World Cup.<ref name="Guardian obituary"/><ref name="Scotsman 18Mar2012"/> He was awarded the 1998 Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award in the music category. He played at Celtic connections again in 1999.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> At Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations at the millennium, his band Cuillin played at the Castle Esplanade, supporting Texas.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 1999 he moved to Mull, where he met Dundonian musician Martin Low who helped him with his next work.<ref name="Herald 17May2014"/> Rykodisc had now become part of Palm Pictures.<ref name="Herald 17May2014"/> In 2000 he released the album Hardland on his own Cuillin label.<ref name="Independent obituary"/> He appeared at the Cambridge Folk Festival in 2000, giving an electrifying performance.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A reviewer wrote in Mojo that "Scots music has never sounded like this before. No music has ever sounded like this before. Half the audience fled in fear of their lives."<ref name="Scotsman 25Feb2002">Template:Cite news</ref> Bennett sold a thousand CDs after the set.<ref name="Herald 17May2014"/>
The City of Edinburgh Music School commissioned him to write Mackay's Memoirs for the school's centenary in 1999.<ref name="EMS former pupil">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It was a piece for chamber orchestra featuring Great Highland bagpipes and harp.<ref name = "Scotsman obituary"/> Mackay's Memoirs was played at the celebrations that took place in Princes Street Gardens, alongside the opening of the new Scottish Parliament in July 1999<ref name="BBC-rebirth-grit"/> and at the 2004 Mòd<ref name="EMS former pupil"/>
He was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in November 2000.<ref name="Herald obituary"/> Over the following eight months he received both chemotherapy and radiotherapy.<ref name="Guardian obituary"/> In the following years his treatments would also include several major operations.<ref name="Independent obituary"/>
After this diagnosis he recorded his fourth album Glen Lyon which was first released on the Foot Stomping' label in 2002.<ref name = "telegraph"/> It was a cycle of Gaelic songs, his mother singing and he accompanying her.<ref name="Scotsman Glen Lyon review">Template:Cite news</ref> Woven into this is a sample of Peter Stewart, his great-great-grandfather singing in 1910, taken from a wax cylinder recording.<ref name="Scotsman 25Feb2002"/>
He married Kirsten in February 2002.<ref name="Scotsman 25Feb2002"/> Following a relapse and an unexpected splenectomy in January of that year, Bennett proposed; the ceremony took place in her mother's kitchen.<ref name="Scotsman 18Mar2012"/><ref name="Scotsman 6Jun2004">Template:Cite news</ref> The couple moved back to Mull. Illness left him feeling disconnected from his music and one day, in a fit of rage, he destroyed many of his instruments − pipes, fiddles and whistles.<ref name="Herald obituary"/><ref name="Guardian obituary"/> Horrified at what he had done, he was unable to bring himself to speak to anyone for the following two days.<ref name="Scotsman 18Mar2012"/>
The final album that he recorded, Grit, was released in October 2003 on Real World Records.<ref name="Independent 9Oct2003">Template:Cite news</ref> It had been recorded while he was ill, and he was unable to play his instruments.<ref name="BBC-rebirth-grit"/> He brought together samples of unaccompanied traditional Scottish folk singers, his own bagpipe and fiddle playing, with and electronic drum beats.<ref name = "BBCfearless"/><ref name="Independent 9Oct2003"/> For Move, the opening track, he sampled a recording of traditional singer Sheila Stewart performing the Moving On Song, Ewan MacColl’s song about travellers; she was delighted that he was taking it to a new audience.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His song Liberation featured Michael Marra narrating an English translation of psalm 118. The album has been "credited with starting the musical evolution of Celtic fusion".<ref name="BBC-rebirth-grit"/> On 10 December 2003 BBC Two Scotland aired an ArtWorks Scotland documentary titled Martyn Bennett: Grit.<ref name="Scotsman 7Dec2003"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Death and legacyEdit
Bennett died from cancer at the Marie Curie Hospice, Edinburgh<ref name = "Scotsman obituary"/> on 30 January 2005, aged 33.<ref name = "BBChonour">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> News of his death spread among those attending the last night of Celtic Connections.<ref name="Herald 15Mar2008">Template:Cite news</ref> The news was held back from the Edinburgh Music School pupils who were recording Mackay's Memoirs the following day.<ref name = "Scotsman obituary"/><ref name="Scotsman 18Mar2012"/> His funeral was held on Mull.<ref name="Herald 15Mar2008"/>
A memorial concert was held at The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, on 15 April.<ref name="Scotsman 11Mar2005"/><ref name="Scotsman 18Apr2005">Template:Cite news</ref> Around the same time the Martyn Bennett Trust was set up by his family and friends,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> as a commemorative fund to help young musicians.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The 2006 Celtic Connections programme included a Martyn Bennett Day, held on 14 January, with events to celebrate his work.<ref name="Scotsman 12Jan2006">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Toccata for Small Hands, written by Bennett for Kirsten, was performed in public for the first time.<ref name="Scotsman 12Jan2006"/> Greg Lawson was commissioned to score an arrangement of Liberation.<ref name="Scotsman 8Jan2006"/> Cuillin Music reformed to perform at the event.<ref name="Scotsman 12Jan2006"/> After Bennett's death, the band preferred to rework material instead of reproducing it.<ref name="Scotsman 4Jan2006"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In June 2006, a book It's Not the Time You Have … was launched which contained recollections of Bennett, compiled by his mother.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
On 27 October 2007 an event was held at The Queen's Hall.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> This event was organised by the Martyn Bennett Trust, with musicians invited to workshops during the day, finishing with a concert in the evening.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2008 Margaret Bennett released a CD single, Love and Loss, with three tracks where Bennett played to accompany his mother's singing; two of the tracks were previously unreleased.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Mr McFall's Chamber, a string quartet from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, toured with a tribute show Aye: An Affirmation of Martyn Bennett, performing pieces that were inspired by Bennett and his work.<ref name="List 13Mar2008">Template:Cite news</ref> The tour began in Perth on 18 March and ended on 29 March in Findhorn.<ref name="List 28Feb2008">Template:Cite news</ref> A further performance was part of the 2008 Edinburgh International Festival.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In March 2012 an anthology was released on the Long Tale Recordings label, entitled Aye.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The album consisted of remastered tracks and some new material, compiled by the Martyn Bennett Trust.<ref name="Scotsman 22Mar2012"/>
In 2013 Creative Scotland announced they would fund an annual prize for new music composition, named in his honour.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
A stage show, Grit: The Martyn Bennett Story, was created as part of the 2014 Commonwealth Games cultural programme.<ref name="Scotsman 20May2014">Template:Cite news</ref> Conceived by Cora Bissett, it was written by Kieran Hurley.<ref name="Scotsman 3May2014">Template:Cite news</ref> Bisset directed the show, having worked in close collaboration with his friends and family to create the show.<ref name="Scotsman 3May2014"/> It premiered at the Tramway in Glasgow in May 2014, then was performed in Mull. It was named event of the year at the 2014 Scots Trad Music Awards.<ref name="Scotsman 13Dec2014">Template:Cite news</ref> Real World Records label re-released Grit to coincide with the stage show.<ref name="Herald 17May2014"/>
Greg Lawson, who had been friends with Bennett and who scored Liberation for a performance at Celtic Connections in 2006, went on to recreate Grit with an orchestral score for live performance.<ref name= "Scotsman 12Jan2015">Template:Cite news</ref> Lawson spent more than a year working on Nae Regrets, working out how an orchestra might recreate Bennett's precise arrangements.<ref name= "Scotsman 12Jan2015"/> He assembled eighty musicians to form the Grit orchestra. On 15 January 2015, just over a decade after Bennett's death, Lawson conducted the Grit orchestra at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, to perform the Opening Concert at Celtic Connections.<ref name="Guardian 16Jan2015">Template:Cite news</ref> The concert was later named as the event of the year at the 2015 Trad awards.<ref name="Scotsman 5Dec2015"/> A further performance was given on 23 August 2016 at the Edinburgh Playhouse as part of the 2016 Edinburgh International Festival.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Update after To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Bothy Culture, and the 25th anniversary of the Celtic Connections festival, Lawson and the orchestra, now containing some 100 traditional folk, classical and jazz musicians, performed the show Bothy Culture and Beyond at the SSE Hydro, Glasgow on 27 January 2018.
DiscographyEdit
- Martyn Bennett (1995)
- Bothy Culture (1997)
- Hardland (with Martin Low) (2000)
- Glen Lyon (with his mother, Margaret Bennett, on vocals) (2002)
- Grit (2003)
- Mackay's Memoirs (performed by City of Edinburgh Music School) (2005)
- Love and Loss (with his mother, Margaret Bennett, and Cameron Drummond) (2008)
CompilationsEdit
- Aye (2012)