The Unmistakable Sound of Progress

Violin, Guitar & Piano

Betterment, advancement, progress
a purpose we long for
yet can never comprehend
for our perspective
is ever subjective.

Those who can know best
are distracted and drunkened
by the intoxicating quest for comfort,
or smothered and silenced
in a suspicious quilt of luxury –
a placebo for the guilty.

But alas!
Those who have seen the quilt made
know best the designs of its quilters
and the quality of its drapers.

Lessons once learnt are forgotten.
Enlightening nectar of experience
is diluted by history.
Leaps become hops,
brushstrokes dots.

Heed those withering trees among you!
Though that which is apparent fades,
concealed roots store nourishment,
enriching the soil we grow in,
fertilising the desert of time,
only if we dig to discover them.

Listen.
So that we may stand on their shoulders
and not merely learn to stand,
For truth lies at a loftier place
than one alone can reach.

by Dónal Rafferty

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Programme Note

The Unmistakable Sound of Progress was commissioned by the Penbridge Trio in 2010 for their UK Concert Series. The work is a meditation on the human concept of progress, considered in terms of our civilisation collectively. I intentionally synthesised other styles of music with my own in this piece since I did not aim to write a piece which ignored the ideas of my musical forefathers.

The form of The Unmistakable Sound of Progress is a theme and three variations, with each variation followed by an interlude (or two interludes and a postlude). Each variation follows a gradually increasing profile in energy and each consecutive variation is a more developed and substantial development than its predecessor. The interludes offer both dramaturgical contrast and periods of rest and reflection for the listener before the next variation subdues them. They also suggest an intellectuality which contrasts with the activity of the variation music. The interludes sequentially develop a scale which grows from three pitches, those missing from the theme. Overall, the piece represents a gradual building on what has gone before. The final ‘interlude’ is ambiguous. It could be taken to suggest that something greater is to follow, or the whole piece could begin again cyclically.

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