Output details

Changing Rates of Change, for symphony orchestra

_Changing Rates of Change_ was one of two orchestral pieces commissioned by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) in 2011, for recording (‘New Music::New Ireland’, vol. 1, Dublin: Contemporary Music Centre, 2013) and broadcast by RTÉ in 2012. It represented the culmination of Clancy’s PhD research at Birmingham Conservatoire, which examined his conceptual practice of artistic intervention and its application to music. The work is an artistic intervention upon the Rock Band Faith No More’s song _Jizzlobber_. This song is structurally unusual as it contains several blocks of material, which have little or nothing to do with one another. Material changes without the anxiety that is often felt by art music composers; however, the song still seems to work musically. Clancy has taken the structure and adapted it to his own ends, predetermining the metrical schemata and rendering it more complex. Into this fixed template, he has poured all of his own original material whilst being mindful of the pacing and textures found in the original. Rather than maintaining the predictable rate of change that can often be found in popular music (and _Jizzlobber_ is no exception), this piece changes the rate of change, adding an additional layer of unpredictability. By so doing, the work can be seen as a cathartic exercise in overcoming the anxiety of change, whilst highlighting the concepts of adaptive re-use and artistic intervention in musical composition.

The work was first performed in Dublin on 30 April 2012 by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gavin Maloney.