Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum

"The idea of a freeze in music is something central to my work - that is, it rather explains itself in blocks of musical material, and these blocks can return in various guises."

"I have something like four or five different musics which I juxtapose, so there is no sense of development in the piece, they simply go from one to the other. It's as if the one block of music has done a journey in silence while another block of music is taking place - or something has been cut out of it."

"I call these different sorts of music mechanisms - it's like having a camera on. You move from one mechanism to the other and as soon as you move the eye the music stops and you see the next mechanism. When you go back to them you're not back to where you left off, so something's been going on in the meantime which you couldn't hear."

Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum

"The only time I've worked to a what I would call a scheme or musical architecture, is in Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum. Usually I work out formal schemes but get very bored with them very quickly. The form is something you can take from the piece after it's written. It's not something which is imposed on to a musical idea in the first place."

Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum - Music Details
	Written in 1989
Instruments:	flute doubling piccolo, oboe, clarinet doubling bass clarinet
	bassoon doubling contra., trumpet, horn, trombone, marimbaphone,
	piano or electric piano, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass

CD:	ETCETERA Records B.V. CD number KTC 1052
Played by:	The London Sinfonietta, conductor - Elgar Howarth

BACK