Benji: A Taurean Story

Benji: A Taurean Story is a four-minute percussion trio written in Istanbul in 2019 for Tanya Tarazan, Ceyla Onlat and Özgü Bulut, who premiered it that January.

Benji is a bull — one of those who, every so often, breaks out of a slaughter line and runs through the streets of a town for a day before being caught. Taurus is also the sign of the stubborn, the patient, the ones who dig their heels in. The piece is a portrait of that stubbornness: a heavy, unhurried pulse on bass drum and low toms that simply refuses to be stopped, around which the other two players throw everything they have — shakers, ratchets, metal on metal, the clatter of a crowd — without once shifting its tempo. Near the end the pulse slows, not because it is beaten but because it has decided to, and the last sound is a single soft stroke on a cowbell.

It is a small, affectionate, slightly furious piece, and it is on the side of the bull.