Mechanical Devils - Final Rehearsal

Rhythm is ubiquitous to both machines and life itself. This piece is about mechanical and biological rhythms, and seeks to discover what music can be found at the borders between beat, pulse and tone. It is written specifically for Perpetuum Ritmico’s unique strengths - I believe they have a wonderful musical curiosity and explorative attitude towards percussion as full bodied musical sound.

Inspiration first came from the sounds of theoretical perpetual motion machines which attempt to use gravity or magnetic fields to break the laws of physics to achieve continuous motion without external power. Watching these machines, we can observe and hear the little actions of friction and gravity which inevitably cause these machines to stop. By metaphor, biological rhythms within the human body are also in continuous motion, and we try to keep them running as long as we can, until the inevitable last day of life.

In terms of musical construction, a core idea concerns independence of tempo between 3 percussionists. It also focuses on getting into a flow of drumming, where there is a certain amount of freedom given to each player to develop patterns intuitively. Within the music, several lines emerge, expand into patterns and collapse into blocks through independent acceleration and deceleration.

The music illustrates the sound of whirring machinery, changing gears, and the formation of harmonic fields at places where tempos lock together. These also fall apart due to the actions of little ‘devils’ in the machinery. The feeling of being in synchrony is found and lost, but the feeling of smooth flowing drumming and expressive freedom is present throughout.