ensemble mécanique

In 2019, I was commissioned by Pawit Jindakitprasert (Tommy) to compose a piece for a mixed ensemble of percussion, piano, clarinet and cello to be used in the Princess Galyani Vadhana International Ensemble Competition 2019. During that time, two composers that I often listen to were Stravinsky and Bernstein, both sharing some aspect of similarity in their music: interesting rhythm and using folk elements in their music (Stravinsky inspired from Russian tune and Bernstein using Jazz in his music). For Stravinsky, he used “stratification”—the alternating between different musical ideas juxtaposed in time—in many of his works, i.e., Petrushka, The Rite of Spring, etc.

As I was inspired by how Bernstein used Jazz in his music, I tried to incorporate various music stylistic ideas for example, Jazz, Polyharmony, Techno, Lyrical Melody, in ensemble mécanique and alternated them using the similar idea of stratification. The title of mécanique means mechanical, machine, mechanism, therefore the sounds I imagined in this piece are factory’s mechanic sounds.

In late 2020, ensemble mécanique was commissioned by Integrated Percussion Ensemble (Mahidol University Percussion Studio) led by Dr.Wannapha Yannawut to be transcribed fully into percussion ensemble.