...certainly the machine will wear out (2014)
for flute, viola and piano
“If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go; perchance it will wear smooth — certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law”
Henry David Thoreau
As a composer, I was always fascinated by mechanical sounds. So far, I had only used the machine as a metaphor in my music. This time I wanted to take the concept of machine as a metaphor and use it in the music almost literally by modeling some machine sounds. In this piece there are 7 industrial machines. These were analyzed in detail and then transferred to musical notation. Instruments too, were stripped from their traditional sound worlds, were subjected to sort of an industrialization process. Instruments are no more those shiny bourgeois objects but more like individual parts of an assembly line.
When machines are used as a metaphor to describe an organization, they refer to the fact that each individual has a very simple and ordinary role, it is done in a strict discipline, resistance is always kept under control, and they are also subjected to planned change. So all these qualities are reflected in the music. Each machine goes to a transformation process and when it is completely dissolved a new one is reformed.
The score is availble through Babel Scores.