Roger Doyle's music is generally notable for the diversity of styles he embraces, but the three pieces recorded are all influenced to varying degrees by minimalism.
Doyle skillfully uses the conventions of the style to set up expectations and then startle the listener with his departures from it. Cool Steel Army for piano, electronics, and laptop has a strong rock beat, and feels like pop, but its use of repeated patterns is significant.
Doyle wrote Paavo's Engagement, for piano, in response to his son's announcement of his wedding. It's an exercise in old-fashioned minimalism with a relentless rhythmic pulse and a very slowly changing pattern that's only occasionally and unpredictably punctuated by pauses. It has an infectious exuberance, and for fans of unvarnished minimalism, it's hard to resist its insistent charm. The showpiece of the CD is Adolph Gébler, Clarinettist, a 40-minute theater piece, which the composer describes as "cinema for the ear," for four actors and one singer, that's underscored throughout. Originally written for orchestra, the instruments here are heard in a synthesized realization of the score. An aging Bohemian musician reflects on his difficult and complex life in Ireland and the United States in this poignant and evocative narrative written by Carlo Gébler, the protagonist's grandson. Fionnuala Gill is especially effective in her moving songs, and the actors and
Doyle's score also contribute significantly to the work's strange power. It's a piece that deserves to be heard and seen; in a version with a live orchestral accompaniment, it could have an overwhelming impact.