Perpetuum mobile
Encyclopedia
Perpetuum mobile moto perpetuo (Italian
and Portuguese
), mouvement perpétuel (French
), movimiento perpetuo (Spanish
), literally meaning "perpetual motion", means two distinct things:
's Piano Sonata No. 2:
This figuration of rapid triplet quavers (eighth notes) continues for the duration of the movement.
For other examples, see Examples below.
s are often intended to be performed in a moto perpetuo fashion (which, in that case, can be called canon perpetuus). In some cases the repeats of a "perpetuum mobile" piece are at a different pitch (while a modulation
or a chord progression
occurs during the repeatable part): some of the riddle canons of Bach
's Das Musikalische Opfer are examples of this particular kind of Perpetuum Mobile/Canon Perpetuus.
Perpetuum mobile as a genre
of separate musical compositions, was at the height of its popularity by the end of the 19th century. Such pieces would often be performed as virtuoso encore
s, in some cases increasing the tempo along the repeats.
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
), mouvement perpétuel (French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
), movimiento perpetuo (Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
), literally meaning "perpetual motion", means two distinct things:
- pieces of musicMusicMusic is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, or parts of pieces, characterised by a continuous steady stream of notes, usually at a rapid tempoTempoIn musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:... - whole pieces, or large parts of pieces, which are to be played repeatedly, often an indefinite number of times.
As a technique
A well-known example is the presto finale of Frédéric ChopinFrédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
's Piano Sonata No. 2:
This figuration of rapid triplet quavers (eighth notes) continues for the duration of the movement.
For other examples, see Examples below.
As separate compositions
As a separate piece, a "Perpetuum Mobile" can be defined as a composition where (a large part of) the piece is intended to be repeated an (often not specified) number of times, without the "motion" of the melody being halted when a repeat begins. CanonCanon (music)
In music, a canon is a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration . The initial melody is called the leader , while the imitative melody, which is played in a different voice, is called the follower...
s are often intended to be performed in a moto perpetuo fashion (which, in that case, can be called canon perpetuus). In some cases the repeats of a "perpetuum mobile" piece are at a different pitch (while a modulation
Modulation (music)
In music, modulation is most commonly the act or process of changing from one key to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature. Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as well as add interest...
or a chord progression
Chord progression
A chord progression is a series of musical chords, or chord changes that "aims for a definite goal" of establishing a tonality founded on a key, root or tonic chord. In other words, the succession of root relationships...
occurs during the repeatable part): some of the riddle canons of Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's Das Musikalische Opfer are examples of this particular kind of Perpetuum Mobile/Canon Perpetuus.
Perpetuum mobile as a genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
of separate musical compositions, was at the height of its popularity by the end of the 19th century. Such pieces would often be performed as virtuoso encore
Encore (concert)
An encore is an additional performance added to the end of a concert, from the French "encore", which means "again", "some more"; multiple encores are not uncommon. Encores originated spontaneously, when audiences would continue to applaud and demand additional performance from the artist after the...
s, in some cases increasing the tempo along the repeats.
19th century
19th-century examples of the "Perpetuum Mobile" genre include:- Beethoven's 22nd piano sonataPiano Sonata No. 22 (Beethoven)Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 22 in F major, Op. 54, was written in 1804. It is contemporary to the first sketches of the equally concise Symphony in C Minor, #5. It is one of Beethoven's lesser known sonatas, overshadowed by its widely known neighbours, the Appassionata and the...
, and large segments of the finales of his TempestPiano Sonata No. 17 (Beethoven)The Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31, No. 2, was composed in 1801/02 by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is usually referred to as "The Tempest" , but this title was not given by him, or indeed referred to as such during his lifetime; instead, it comes from a claim by his associate Anton Schindler...
and AppassionataPiano Sonata No. 23 (Beethoven)Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 is a piano sonata. It is considered one of the three great piano sonatas of his middle period . It was composed during 1804 and 1805, and perhaps 1806, and was dedicated to Count Franz von Brunswick...
sonatas - The second of Franz SchubertFranz SchubertFranz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's Impromptus, D. 899Impromptus (Schubert)Franz Schubert's Impromptus are a series of eight pieces for solo piano composed in 1827. They were published in two sets of four impromptus each: the first set was published in the composer's lifetime as Op. 90, and the second set was published posthumously as Op. posth. 142. They are now... - The finale of Carl Maria von WeberCarl Maria von WeberCarl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
's Piano Sonata No. 1 - Felix MendelssohnFelix MendelssohnJakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
's Perpetuum mobile, opus 119, for piano. - Ottokar NovacekOttokar Novacek; May 13, 1866, Fehertémplom , southern Hungary – February 3, 1900, New York City) was an Hungarian violinist and composer of Czech descent and is perhaps best known for his work Perpetuum Mobile .- Family lineage :...
's Perpetuum Mobile, for violin and piano. - Nicolò PaganiniNiccolò PaganiniNiccolò Paganini was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was one of the most celebrated violin virtuosi of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique...
's Moto perpetuo Op. 11 (N° 6) for violin. most often performed with a rather insignificant obbligatoObbligatoIn classical music obbligato usually describes a musical line that is in some way indispensable in performance. Its opposite is the marking ad libitum. It can also be used, more specifically, to indicate that a passage of music was to be played exactly as written, or only by the specified...
accompaniment; when scored for wind instruments it becomes a virtuoso challenge of circular breathingCircular breathingCircular breathing is a technique used by players of some wind instruments to produce a continuous tone without interruption. This is accomplished by breathing in through the nose while simultaneously pushing air out through the mouth using air stored in the cheeks.It is used extensively in playing...
and double-tonguing. - Nikolai Rimsky-KorsakovNikolai Rimsky-KorsakovNikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five.The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful or The Mighty Coterie, refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the years 1856–1870: Mily Balakirev , César...
's Flight of the BumblebeeFlight of the Bumblebee"Flight of the Bumblebee" is an orchestral interlude written by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov for his opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, composed in 1899–1900. The piece closes Act III, Tableau 1, during which the magic Swan-Bird changes Prince Gvidon Saltanovich into an insect so that he can fly away to...
, an interlude for his opera The Tale of Tsar SaltanThe Tale of Tsar SaltanThe Tale of Tsar Saltan, of His Son the Renowned and Mighty Bogatyr Prince Gvidon Saltanovich, and of the Beautiful Princess-Swan is an 1831 poem by Aleksandr Pushkin, written after the Russian fairy tale edited by Vladimir Dahl...
. - Johann Strauss IIJohann Strauss IIJohann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
's Perpetuum Mobile: musikalischer Scherz for orchestra. - Robert SchumannRobert SchumannRobert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
's Hasche-Mann from KinderszenenKinderszenenKinderszenen , Opus 15, by Robert Schumann, is a set of thirteen pieces of music for piano written in 1838. In this work, Schumann provides us with his adult reminiscences of childhood. Schumann had originally written 30 movements for this work, but chose 13 for the final version...
.
20th century
20th-century examples of the "Perpetuum Mobile" genre include:- Mouvement, a 1905 piano composition by Claude DebussyClaude DebussyClaude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
- The second movement of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2Piano Concerto No. 2 (Prokofiev)Sergei Prokofiev set to work on his Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16 in 1912 and completed it in 1913. Performing as solo pianist, he premiered the work on August 23 the same year at Pavlovsk. Most of the audience reacted intensely...
(1912–1913) - Trois Mouvements perpétuels, a 1918 piano composition by Francis PoulencFrancis PoulencFrancis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...
. - The end of the opera WozzeckWozzeckWozzeck is the first opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg. It was composed between 1914 and 1922 and first performed in 1925. The opera is based on the drama Woyzeck left incomplete by the German playwright Georg Büchner at his death. Berg attended the first production in Vienna of Büchner's...
, Act III Scene 5, by Alban BergAlban BergAlban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born in...
(1914–1924) - The last movement of Maurice RavelMaurice RavelJoseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
's Sonata for Violin and Piano (1923–1927) - The last movement of the Violin ConcertoViolin concerto (Barber)Samuel Barber completed his Violin Concerto, Op. 14, in 1939. It is a work in three movements, lasting about 22 minutes.-History:In 1939 Philadelphia industrialist Samuel Simeon Fels commissioned Barber to write a violin concerto for Fels' ward, Iso Briselli, a graduate from the Curtis Institute...
by Samuel BarberSamuel BarberSamuel Osborne Barber II was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. His Adagio for Strings is his most popular composition and widely considered a masterpiece of modern classical music...
(1939) - The last movement of Béla Bartók's Concerto for OrchestraConcerto for Orchestra (Bartók)Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116, BB 123, is a five-movement musical work for orchestra composed by Béla Bartók in 1943. It is one of his best-known, most popular and most accessible works. The score is inscribed "15 August – 8 October 1943", and it premiered on December 1, 1944 in Boston Symphony...
(1943) - Prelude no. 2 in A minor from 24 Preludes and Fugues24 Preludes and Fugues (Shostakovich)The 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87 by Dmitri Shostakovich is a set of 24 piano pieces, one in each of the major and minor keys of the chromatic scale. While the musical style and ideas are Shostakovich's own, it follows the form of Frederic Chopin's Op. 28 preludes.Each piece is in two parts: a...
by Dmitri ShostakovichDmitri ShostakovichDmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
(1950–1951) - The final movement of Benjamin BrittenBenjamin BrittenEdward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
's Cello SonataCello sonataA cello sonata is usually a sonata written for cello and piano, though other instrumentations are used, such as solo cello. The most famous Romantic-era cellos sonatas are those written by Johannes Brahms and Ludwig van Beethoven...
in C MajorC majorC major is a musical major scale based on C, with pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has no flats/sharps.Its relative minor is A minor, and its parallel minor is C minor....
Op. 65 (1960). Also the third movement of his Suite for Violin and Piano Op. 6Opus numberAn Opus number , pl. opera and opuses, abbreviated, sing. Op. and pl. Opp. refers to a number generally assigned by composers to an individual composition or set of compositions on publication, to help identify their works...
(1935), the finale of his first solo cello suite (1964) and the penultimate movement of his third cello suite (1972). - Arvo PärtArvo PärtArvo Pärt is an Estonian classical composer and one of the most prominent living composers of sacred music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs his self-made compositional technique, tintinnabuli. His music also finds its inspiration and influence from...
's orchestral Perpetuum mobile (1963). - "Perpetuum Mobile for pedals alone" a showpiece for Organ by Wilhelm MiddelschulteWilhelm MiddelschulteWilhelm Middelschulte was a German organist and composer who resided in America for most of his career.-Life:...
- 'Fracture', a moto perpetuo piece based on the whole-tone scale composed by guitarist Robert FrippRobert FrippRobert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...
and included on the 1974 album 'Starless and Bible BlackStarless and Bible BlackStarless and Bible Black is an album released by the British progressive rock band King Crimson in 1974. Most of the vocal pieces on the album are satires and commentaries on the sleaziness and materialism of society...
' - John Coolidge AdamsJohn Coolidge AdamsJohn Coolidge Adams is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer with strong roots in minimalism. His best-known works include Short Ride in a Fast Machine , On the Transmigration of Souls , a choral piece commemorating the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks , and Shaker...
's Short Ride in a Fast MachineShort Ride in a Fast MachineShort Ride in a Fast Machine is a musical piece composed by John Adams. The piece has now become one of the most frequently requested and performed encores in American concert-halls...
(1986). - 'Perpetuum Mobile' by Penguin Cafe OrchestraPenguin Cafe OrchestraThe Penguin Cafe Orchestra was a collective of performing musicians created by classically trained British guitarist, composer and arranger Simon Jeffes...
(1987) - The string piece of music used by the British ABC Weekend Television to announce the start of its broadcasting hours.
21st century
21st-century examples of the "Perpetuum Mobile" genre include:- 'Equus' by Eric WhitacreEric WhitacreEric Whitacre is an American composer, conductor and lecturer. He is one of the most popular and performed composers of his generation. In 2008, the all-Whitacre choral CD Cloudburst became an international best-seller, topping the classical charts and earning a Grammy nomination...
(2000) - The album of the German avant garde group Einstürzende NeubautenEinstürzende NeubautenEinstürzende Neubauten is a German post-industrial band, originally from West Berlin, formed in 1980. The group currently comprises Blixa Bargeld , Alexander Hacke , N.U...
Perpetuum MobilePerpetuum Mobile (album)Perpetuum Mobile is an album by Einstürzende Neubauten. It is an offshoot of their first supporters-only recording experiment. It was released with Mute Records, in part to facilitate a world tour.- Track listing :# “Ich gehe jetzt” – 3:31...
contains some examples of the perpetuum mobile concept as well. - Fade Into DarknessFade into Darkness"Fade into Darkness" is a song by Swedish house producer and DJ Avicii. It was released on July 16, 2011. The song interpolates elements from "Perpetuum Mobile" by Penguin Cafe Orchestra, as written by Simon Jeffes.-Track listing:*;Digital download...
(previously known as Penguin) by Avicii (Tim Berg)AviciiTim "The Phoenix" Bergling , known professionally as Avicii, Tim Berg, "Ashwin", "Yeshel", "Harshil" and Tom Hangs, is a Swedish DJ, remixer, and record producer. His single "Bromance" has charted in the top 20 on the national single charts of Belgium, the Netherlands, and his native Sweden...
(2010) - inspired by Penguin Cafe OrchestraPenguin Cafe OrchestraThe Penguin Cafe Orchestra was a collective of performing musicians created by classically trained British guitarist, composer and arranger Simon Jeffes...
's 'Perpetuum Mobile'