- Stewart Copeland
Poltroons in Paradise: Concerto for Percussion Section and Orchestra (2013)
- Palmyra Music (World)
- 2+pic.3(ca).2+bcl.2+cbn/4.3.2+btbn.1/pf(cel).hp/str
- timp, 3 perc
- 16 min
Programme Note
Composer's Note:
Poltroons in Paradise is the beginning of a story, the cheerful part, about those who ride in on the back of a revolution and then discover the temptations of those things against which they had revolted.
I’m imagining a cadre of starving, hitherto excluded intellectuals swaggering through the palace of the fallen regime. The chandeliers, the brocades and the gilded furniture all inspire a grand buffoonery that hides a sneaking desire.
Many composers would regard the mission of writing a percussion concerto as an opportunity to celebrate banging and clattering. A worthy cause no doubt, but there can be great beauty in things that are hit with a stick. And those satins really are quite beautiful…
Stewart Copeland
Poltroons in Paradise is the beginning of a story, the cheerful part, about those who ride in on the back of a revolution and then discover the temptations of those things against which they had revolted.
I’m imagining a cadre of starving, hitherto excluded intellectuals swaggering through the palace of the fallen regime. The chandeliers, the brocades and the gilded furniture all inspire a grand buffoonery that hides a sneaking desire.
Many composers would regard the mission of writing a percussion concerto as an opportunity to celebrate banging and clattering. A worthy cause no doubt, but there can be great beauty in things that are hit with a stick. And those satins really are quite beautiful…
Stewart Copeland