Music in Four Tempi
2009
Music in Four Tempi was an experiment in simultaneous tempi without using separate conductors or perceivable rhythmic relations. Four percussionists have portable music players with metronome tracks at different tempi. Each melody instrument is assigned a percussionist, and these pairs play respectively at 80bpm, 76bpm, 104bpm and 92bpm. Repetitive lines thus cut across each other, while changes are co-ordinated by the conductor. It was written with the intention of ‘minimalism with more disorder’, but now that I am aware of the earlier piece, I consider it Ligeti’s Poème Symphonique with human agency…
Instrumentation: 4 melody instruments, 4 pitchless percussion instruments
Duration: Flexible – between 4 and 10 mins
Premiere: 8th June 2010 by Lucian Amos, Graham Bushell, Simon Bray, Patrick Friel, Sam Lea, Emily MacGregor, Alex Main-Iain and Olly Taylor at Martin Harris Centre, Manchester, as part of Estival