Restless Feeling

Restless Feeling is written for an ensemble of fifteen players, and is an instrumental reflection on the music and sound world of The Velvet Underground. This is an original work on my part, so there are no actual quotations of the music from their albums. However, the listener will hear many allusions to their style, some more oblique than others. As with other works I’ve written of a similar nature (in particular, a series of electronica transcriptions) my intention isn’t to capture the original sound world exactly as it is. Indeed, given the obvious difference between a rock band and a  ‘classical’ skeleton orchestra such as the ensemble I wrote for (single winds, brass, percussion, piano and strings), this is never something which could be realistically achieved. However, there are definite influences of the unique The Velvet Underground ‘sound’ on my own writing in this work.


As much of my focus was based on their first (and my favourite) album, The Velvet Underground and Nico, there were particular instrumental effects in that recording which found there way into my own music. Perhaps the most obvious from a musical point of view was the viola playing of John Cale, which in so many ways defines the unique sound world in this album, from the eerie harmonics in the “The Black Angel's Death Song” to the incessant drones and slides in “Venus in Furs.” However, ensuring I stuck to my brief of keeping my work original, I was careful not to repeat these sounds verbatim, but instead to take them as sonic ideas which infiltrated the work.


The structure of the piece is continuous, lasting a bit under 20 minutes. It falls into separate sections, with some more clearly delineated than others. The pounding chords at the opening of the work allude to the barrelhouse style of “I'm waiting for the Man” but while the piano naturally features in much of this, it isn’t exclusively confined to that instrument, and indeed, the colours of the chords constantly shift among the different instrumental families. The structure of the work is quite rhapsodic, shifting between highly energetic music (hints of “All Tomorrow’s Parties” and “Beginning to See the Light”) to the much more sedate, including an homage to the harmonic world of “Candy Says.” The ending is fast and furious with overtones of “European Son” but finally culminates with an intensified version of the barrelhouse style from the opening.


The title of the work Restless Feeling is extracted from the lyrics of “Sunday Morning.” For me, the phrase seems to encapsulate one of the most attractive features of The Velvet Underground. Although perhaps more apparent in their laid back songs, this ‘restlessness’ pervades so much of their musical style, including the faster more energetic numbers. There is a subtlety, a sense that you never know quite what direction the music will take and, indeed, sometimes not quite knowing what the mood of the music is, or is meant to be. In my own way, I’ve tried to recapture some of this restlessness. Although I am naturally writing as a contemporary classical composer, prior to composing the piece, and during the writing of it, I immersed myself in the sound world of The Velvet Underground. So, while it is still my voice that emerges, it is inevitably a heavily accented one!


© David Horne
Manchester, February 2008


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This programme note may be reproduced free of charge in concert programmes with a credit to the composer