Description

“From a performer’s point of view, Concerto TransYouman is a very challenging but rewarding piece to play. It also is the closest I have gotten to just rocking out on a piece. The co-ordinating with the bass drum is a new challenge for the performer and makes me think of the one-man band who had to play a number of instruments by himself. (Something which seems less spectacular now because of the development and use of electronics.) Some of the bass drum part requires fast beating requiring an efficient technique giving me more appreciation for the drummer’s craft. The piece is unforgiving. Being based on the idea of computer like precision, my priority was to make the rhythm as accurate as possible which was particularly challenging when the drum was beating 4 against the bassoon 5. Nevertheless, I had a lot of fun working it all out.

The piece has an industrial feel, being influenced by developments in computer music, but this is then transferred to the unlikely instrument of the bassoon. The bass drum gives the piece a more rock feel, and the bassoonist has to bring a raw energy as well as playing a part which is defi nitely more suited to a computer—with fast loops (including large leaps), rapidly shifting (and simultaneous) metrical pulses and circular breathing to create an inhuman (or transhuman) effect.”

James Aylward