Velocity (De Snelheid) (1983)

Composed as a commission from the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra

Velocity sets out to explore how speed is suggested in music. The orchestra is divided into three groups. Orchestra 1 and 2 (left and right behind Orchestra 3) have identical constellations: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, tuba and piano. The third, central orchestra consists of flutes, harps, Hammond organ, bass guitar and strings. Each orchestra is escorted by percussion: Orchestras 1 and 2 by high-pitched wooden instruments and Orchestra 3 by low-pitched bass drum and tom-tom.

The two 'high' percussionists maintain a consistently fast pulse, which speeds up stepwise throughout the piece. In principle the two brass orchestras follow the tempo of the high percussion, though always in alternation as in hocketing.

Orchestra 3 starts off with a very drawn-out melody which also serves as an exposition of the musical material, after which it soon becomes involved in the slow beat which the 'low' percussion has been playing from the beginning. This is the characteristic 'pump' or 'bellows' rhythm, the 'lungs' which power the work's breath.

In the course of about 16 minutes that slow beat accelerates, that is: the pauses in-between become shorter by degrees. Just before the moment when the low percussion's slow beat turns into a regular pulse, the high percussion reaches maximum speed to get stuck in a tremolo. At that point they halt and then, just after, the low regular beat assumes a precise regularity as all three orchestras unite in that rhythm.

© Louis Andriessen