related works
24 capriccio's voor viool solo
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Violin
Scoring:
vl
Back to Back : Double concerto for percussion, piano and symphony orchestra / Svyatoslav Lunyov
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Percussion and orchestra
Scoring:
pf-solo perc-solo 3fl(picc) 3ob 3cl(cl-b) 3fg(cfg) 4h 3tpt 3trb tb perc str
The Longitude Act of 1714 : for percussion and orchestra, 2004 / David Dramm
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Percussion and orchestra
Scoring:
fl fl(pic) 2ob 2cl 2fg 4sax 2h 2trp trb-t 4perc str(6.4.4.3.1.) perc-solo
Or Your Shadow at Dusk : for two percussion players and chamber orchestra / Robert Groslot
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Percussion and orchestra
Scoring:
1111 / 1111 / 2 Perc / hp / pf / strings
composition
The Laws of Science No. 2 : for 2 timpani and orchestra / JacobTV - Jacob Ter Veldhuis
Other authors:
Veldhuis, Jacob ter
(Composer)
Description:
The composition is derived from a section of the electronic work from 1992, which is based on statements by British physicist Stephen Hawking. Hawking is often regarded as the Einstein of our time. His ideas about God, cosmos, time and space are as fascinating as they are controversial:
“God would not have had any freedom to chose how the universe began. Instead, I would use the term 'god' as the embodiment of the laws of science. We are such insignificant creaturen on a minor placet of a very average star on the outer suburbs of one of a hunderd-thousand-million galaxies... So it is difficult to believe in a god that would care about us if he even noticed our existence.”
The certainty with which Hawking makes his statements is further emphasised by the fact that—almost completely paralysed and unable to speak—he communicated through a speech synthesizer that sounded like the voice of a robot.
Timpani are perhaps the most "certain" instruments in the orchestra: Timpani never "doubt" and always sound very decisive, like scientific axioms. Could it be that science is so fixated on itself that its practitioners, like Hawking, focus more on the laws of science than—what seems more logical to me—the exploration of the laws of nature? Hawking even goes so far as to regard "the laws of science" as a metaphor for God. In this mini concerto I wanted to musically depict the dogmatic and simultaneously contradictory nature of this, to me, tragicomic title.