Study for Orchestra (2020/21)
Orchestra:
2 2(2nd also Eh.) 2(2nd also Bcl.) 2(2nd also Cbs.) - 2 2 2 1 - Timp. Perc.(2) Hrp. Pno.(also Synth.) Str.
Duration: 11 mins
Dance Machine was created as a preliminary study for my opera Turing, which explores the life and thought of the English mathematician Alan Turing (1912–1954).
As in the opera, this orchestral piece addresses the question of the mechanical versus the 'living' elements in music—how much mechanism lies within the living, and how much life resides within the machine.
Influenced by 'mechanical' musical forms such as minimalism and drum and bass, I ultimately arrived at a provisional artistic answer to this question: here, the mechanical dissolves into the dance-like, thereby regaining a human quality.
Anno Schreier, 2021