David Carrington, Battle of the war machines (1928) - Finale

Andante giusto

For full orchestra (minus a few brass), 5 percussionists and an ancient drumset

The piece is basically program music about a hostile encounter between two war robots. They duke it out and the winner is then celebrated in this finale. Originally it was conceived as a six movement suite with varied instrumentation, ranging from the unorthodox combination of a cowbell and steel drums to the fully-fledged orchestra.

About the structure: In the opening bars an Alphorn states the melody in C which is (after a ridiculous whirlwind by marimba and solo viola) subsequently harmonized in the clarinets and juxtaposed with a jarring 7/4 rhythm in snare and bass trombone, the note G being the underlying pedal note. After alot of romantic stuff (wind chimes. mmm...) the main theme later climatically reappears in F, this time C being the pedal note, and is accompanied by a boogie woogie figure (C7) in double bass, cello and marimba

Carrington here combines two passions of his (and of futurists in general): War and mechanical stuff

This was achieved with the aid of Sibelius 5, with which the original manuscript (which I ordered from Mumbai, Carrington's final resting place) was painstakingly recreated

This finale became the official theme music of English Futurism and is scientifically proven to be the best music ever.

Extra info for nerds: The opening bars were stolen and marginally modified by the Star Trek people

Requested by Flammesombres