Thursday 3 July 2014

Anima Mechanicae: Soul of the Machine - Programme Notes


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Anima Mechanicae: Soul of the Machine

“Dedicated to the Computers and Robots of the Future, Who Long to Dream as the Humans
Do.”

Written for string quartet and completed in 2007, this work intentionally utilizes a re-imagining
of minimalistic gestures, capitalizing on Wallin Huff's obsession with Glass-ian style
minimalism. Yet, being more prone to programmatic style over "absolute music," the
overarching flow and connecting material between elements are largely encompassed within
the tale of a science-fiction character of Wallin Huff's imagination: specifically, that of an
advanced computer program who has been given a chance to experience emotions like the
humans do.

Therefore, the work opens with moments of mechanical coldness, gradually giving way to
moments of tender and emotional beauty. Wallin Huff intentionally derived and fashioned her
various rhythmic and tonal patterns throughout the work from strict mathematical relationships
-- to showcase that a mechanically constructed framework can give way to striking beauty on
its surface, much in the way a computer program of the future might evolve into its abstract
dream-state.

The sections of this single-movement work include: Mechanically, Quixotically, Pensively, With
impish behaviour, Tenderly, and Surreal.

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