Bedford - Più Mosso for large orchestra

From very early on in thinking about this piece, I wanted to see if I could start with basically nothing – the opening few minutes are very, very, slow, and have no pitched notes in at all – and create something from there. From this, came the idea that the tempo would steadily increase throughout the piece. And from this, came the title: Più Mosso. It is the only tempo indication in the score after the opening of the piece, and means the music should be played somewhat faster than before. Over the course of the piece the tempo quadruples in speed, ending up at the fastest tempo on a conventional metronome. What was exciting is that I had no idea of this ending when I started the piece – it was something that evolved during the process of composition.

Working with unpitched sounds for the orchestra was almost like trying to speak a new language – it took a long time to work out how things would work and there were many abortive attempts at the opening. I also had to work out how I could move from unpitched to pitched sounds – do I introduce pitched notes gradually, or should they come as a sudden entrance? There were also questions of how to balance 'normal' notes on the instruments with the generally quieter unpitched ones. 

The piece was commissioned by the CBSO Youth Orchestra, so as well as it being a challenge to myself, I wanted to make it something that would simultaneously play to their strengths as exciting young musicians, but also push them into trying out sounds and combinations of instruments that might be unfamiliar to them.  

Luke Bedford