Sasha Scott – Humans May Not Apply (World Première)

by 5:4

Behind today’s Advent Calendar door is a quick bit of fun from British composer Sasha Scott. In 2019, Scott won the Senior category in the BBC Young Composer of the Year Competition with a four-minute orchestral-electronic hybrid titled Humans May Not Apply. It’s a work that both pits the acoustic and electronic forces against each other and, ultimately, brings them into a kind of sympathetic alignment.

After a mysterious introduction – high sounds of friction, a hint of a pulse, a slow line of octave harmonics – the piece sets off at speed, beats start up triggering waves and bursts of sliding orchestral energy. A breather of sorts comes less than a minute later, through a subdued passage where the pulse continues sotto voce over a low drone, while pitch continues to glissando. Everything erupts again but suddenly shifts sideways into a percussion-driven sequence, again filled with the sliding bands of energy that by now dominate the piece and seem to form spiral patterns. There’s a lovely conclusion to this sequence, with Scott concentrating the orchestra into the beats of the pulse, forming an intense focal point.

The music gets going again, though now, even though it’s driving at speed the actual pulse apparently contains minimal percussive presence, perhaps by now keeping going under its own steam. Orchestra and electronics are merged while the energy continues to slip-slide around until, having emerged out the other side, it sags and dissipates.

The first performance of Humans May Not Apply was given by Aurora Orchestra in August 2019.


Programme note

Humans May Not Apply was inspired by how machines, robots and technology are taking over our daily lives more and more as technology progresses. I wanted to reflect this in my orchestration choice by getting musicians to play live alongside electronic sounds, which have mostly been made from a recording of me playing a glissando on my violin. I wanted the electronics to overpower the live instruments at times because it represents the way man-made technology is taking over – although it is an intentional paradox that the electronic sounds stemmed from a live recording of my violin.

—Sasha Scott

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