Four Perpetual Motions – 27th June

Ahead of the premiere of Four Perpetual Motions by members of the Philharmonia Orchestra a week on Thursday, I have written a blog post for the Royal Philharmonic Society, who commissioned the work. It’s on flippancy and music – and how I attempted to write Four Perpetual Motions with some of that tone.

…Flippancy, especially as expressed in art, is a kind of levity and frivolity delivered with a subversive mock-seriousness – a matter-of-fact insincerity that is charming and disarming in equal measure. To be flippant is to indulge the noble urges to dodge every serious question, to prize wit over sincerity, and to take hedonistic delight in obtusely counter-intuitive formations. And if those urges don’t sound very noble at all to you, then perhaps you have misread my flippant tone…

The full post can be read over at the RPS Blog. The premiere will be at 6pm, 27th June at the Royal Festival Hall, conducted by Rüdiger Bohn (details here). The concert also features the premieres of Ad Bestias by Arne Gieshoff and Casement by Christopher McAteer.