String Orchestra - Level 4 - Digital Download
SKU: A0.940136
Composed by Paul Sweet. 20th Century,Contemporary,Standards. Score and parts. 29 pages. Paul Sweet Music #5771341. Published by Paul Sweet Music (A0.940136).
Machinations, a 4 minute concert piece perfect for advanced high school or college level players, opens in a sort of rhythmic and tonal gridlock. Short sequences of notes in each part overlap and struggle to break free from the others, sometimes shifting slightly upward or downward. Slowly, new harmonies and dissonances are created by these shifts, taking the music to a breaking point where a new theme finally pushes through. A more outgoing middle section surges ahead relentlessly, each of the parts working now more as a group than before. Eventually, though, it becomes clear that the gridlock of the beginning must return.
The third and final section seems at first to be a repeat of the opening material, but the appearance of music from the middle section lets the listener know this is not the case. Themes from all over the work soon blend and overlap, growing in intensity until the climax implodes and the work comes to a quiet and uneasy end.
Machinations, by definition, are plots or schemes. I imagined, as I wrote the work, that each instrumental part was scheming about how it would break free from the rigid and meticulous pattern of the opening measures. By the same token, it was clear that some undefined force was plotting ways to keep the music in this form. Imagine these secret plots and maneuvers as you play or conduct the work for maximum effectiveness.
