Tarik O' Regan (1978-Present)

Introduction
Tarik O' Regan is a British composer from London. He was born in 1978 and studied at the Whitgift School. He originally studied percussion, but then took an interest specifically in composition. He worked as a music reviewer after undergrad and worked there for 4 years. After his compositional education, he continued his work on music but also commenting on music for BBC. His music is regarded as "exquisite and delicate" (The Washington Post); "beautifully-imagined, holding the audience rapt" (The Financial Times); "sublime: a piece that you didn't want to end" (The Times, London); and generating "previously unheard sound worlds with astonishing effect" (The Philadelphia Inquirer). He currently also is faculty and other positions at Rutgers University, New York University, and Oxford University.

Work Analysis
The piece of O' Regan's that I am going to be looking at is "Mass Observation". I wanted to look at this specific piece because of the fact is uses a very interesting combination of a choir and a percussion ensemble. The ambient nature of this piece is very relaxing and pleasing to the ears, the drums give a tribal feel to the piece and the harmonizing chorus above are the only true sources of pitch, aside from a few pitched percussion instruments, but the chords being used are atonal in nature. It is a piece composed of 13 different movements, each having a very distinct composition of sound. The parts of the piece that specifically focus on the chorus are absolutely beautiful, and when the percussion becomes the point of focus, it is hard not to be mesmerized by the surrounding sounds. Instead of the large voluminous ending that you would expect from this combination, you get just a beautiful chord held over a few remaining small percussion noises, even in this specific performance of the piece, the audience is confused as to when the piece actually end because the ending is so small dynamically.

Comparisons
I would directly compare this piece to the music of Stockhausen. The ambient feel of this piece along with the feeling of being surrounded by sound makes it seem just like a acoustic form of Oktophonie. The sound is so mesmerizing and calming that it becomes less about what is going on in the music, but more about how you are visualizing the music. It also has elements of Missy Mazzoli's Overture where there is a lot of drama instilled into the very fabric of the sound because of the instrumentation. The legacy of this piece is taking the past and applying it to strengthen the music of the future.

Observations
I really enjoyed this piece. While it is long, it is a interesting combination of instruments that I honestly have not seen together before. The combination kept me on my toes as I did not know what would be happening next. I learn from this piece to think outside of the box when it comes to composition because it is easy to fit in to what everyone else does, but to really stand out takes a conscious effort of going against the norm.