Velocity
Item
-
Score title
-
Velocity
-
Composer
-
Kenji Bunch
-
Program note
-
Velocity was inspired by the "Mannheim Rocket," a popular compositional technique in the mid-18th century that uses propulsive, wide-ranging arpeggios to heighten the excitement of a work. With the goal of helping to propel virtuosic flute writing into a new century, I wanted to suggest a contemporary treatment of this quirky, fun technique. To this end, my work is made up almost entirely of broken triads and arpeggios, often superimposed between the flute and piano parts, creating bi-tonal clashes.
This arpeggio vocabulary shifts in texture from an opening quasi-minimalism to driving, rock-inspired rhythms and power chords, to a lyrical, falling arpeggio in canon that outlines poignant major seventh chord harmonies. A bebop-tinged coda leads to a last virtuoso presentation of the "Rocket."
Kenji Bunch