TOM COULT | Sonnet Machine for symphony orchestra – 20163(III=picc).0.3(II=Ebcl.III=bcl).2.cbsn – 4.3.2.btrbn.1 – perc(4): I: medium susp.cym/whip/mar II: large susp.cym/tabla/bongos/tamb/whip III: small susp.cym/BD/glsp IV: sleigh bells/whip/vib – harp

Sonnet Machine

This piece was was written for a project based around Shakespeare’s sonnets. I got interested in the rhyming scheme of 14-line sonnet forms, though it was actually not the Shakespearean sonnet (ABAB/CDCD/EFEF/GG) that most excited me but the Spenserian form (ABAB/CBCB/CDCD/EE), which has more repetitions. My piece follows this latter ‘sonnet’ form, with the result that there are 14 discrete chunks of music of five types (A, B, C etc) interacting and juxtaposing in various combinations, always separated by percussive whip cracks to signal a sharp cut.

The result is a piece that is volatile and changeable, but with material returning and changing in various ways – the initially stately ‘B’ material is compressed into shorter stretches of time on each occurrence, so that the same music ends up getting faster and faster. Conversely, the mechanical ‘C’ material, initially led by marimba and plucked strings with sleighbells, expands and develops on each occurrence, finally going haywire, like a machine spinning out of control. Also included in the orchestra are several string instruments tuned a semitone or tone lower than normal, so that the ‘A’ and ‘E’ material (at the beginning and end of the piece) are able to use the resonant sound of open strings on many more pitches than the string section normally allows.

Instrumentation:

symphony orchestra: 3(III=picc).0.3(II=Ebcl.III=bcl).2.cbsn – 4.3.2.btrbn.1 – perc(4):  I: medium susp.cym/whip/mar II: large susp.cym/tabla/bongos/tamb/whip III: small susp.cym/BD/glsp IV: sleigh bells/whip/vib – harp – strings (14.12.10.8.6)

Duration:

10 mins

Commission:

Commissioned by BBC Radio 3

Score:

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