Wild Flow

1 Pesante – Vivo, molto animato – Poco meno mosso
2 Ritmico, meccanico
3 Largamente
4 Molto veloce, leggierissimo
5 Animato, vivace

Wild Flow is a sequence of five orchestral pieces, composed in 2015. Its central item is a sustained slow movement; the four pieces surrounding this are predominantly energetic. Like my many other multi-movement works, especially those in my series of ‘Sound Carvings’, this offers a zig-zag progression of mood and event, rather than the familiar Classical balance of Haydn or the cumulative progression of Tchaikovsky’s symphonic design; the name Wild Flow is to suggest a discourse of abrupt contrasts of expression. The title also proved prophetic of upheavals in my ordering of these movements during composition: the pieces refused to settle within the ‘flow’ I plotted, eventually settling into a new order, though retaining the shift from fast to slow pace (in the middle) and back.

In the central slow piece, an expanding chorale unfolds between accumulations of more soloistic wind writing, led by the bass clarinet. Surrounding this Largamente third movement are two quirky explorations of orchestral contrast and energy: the second movement in particular follows a zig-zag between opposites – it is a music that keeps changing its mind, and thus itself embodies its ‘wild flow’ title; movement four is a fleeting interlude whose three-note chord motif repeatedly tries to get a foothold. Bookending this sequence are the first movement, whose ‘fanfare’ climbs upwards through the orchestra, and the fifth piece, which builds in volume steadily from a single repeated note over its four minutes.

I continue to resist the idea of music’s being ‘about’ something outside its own discourse; chiefly this project was for me about a more collaborative orchestration – a shift from the soloistic, diversified textures of my Dogs and Wolves a decade ago. However, it may be of interest to know that initially I had in mind to create secular expressive equivalents to the Anglican ‘canticles’, ‘A zig-zag progression of mood and event’, with their voices of exhortation: Magnificat, Benedicite, Nunc dimittis and others. This idea did not persist far into – and does not say much about – the actual music, but some listeners like to know what composers were thinking about, even for a while. The period of this project’s planning and writing saw the Ulster Orchestra come through the darkest period in its history; that it has emerged as a resurgent orchestral force is down to its own courage but also down to the dedicated determination of some unsung heroes fighting on its behalf. Wild Flow bears a dedication ‘to the Ulster Orchestra and its champions’.

Piers Hellawell 2016