Performed by the CHROMA x RAM Performers Ensemble (2020)

Programme Note

The quirkiness and humour present in the “mechanical expression” seen in the works of French Avant-garde painter Francis Picabia sparked the creation of this composition for Wind Quintet and Piano. Picabia’s mechanical drawings ironically highlight both the efficiency and inefficiency of the technological zeitgeist of the 1930s, including the portable camera.

Notificacophony, similarly, highlights the peculiar, fascinating, entertaining, strange, nagging and relentless thing to which most of us are already addicted: our smartphones. The constant pinging and dinging sounds including bleeps and bloops (and everything in between) that ring out of these devices dominate the entire material of this short, fast work. This results in a cacophony of notifications, or just simply, a ‘notificacophony’.

Dedication, Awards & Acknowledges

This work was written for the CHROMA ensemble for the 100 Ideas of Art concert during the Royal Academy of Music’s 2020 Sound and Vision Festival.

Instrumentation

Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn and Piano

Full Score