Signification (for orchestra)

This piece is inspired by something called ‘signifyin(g)’, which is a rhetorical device used in African-American music.

Signifyin(g) is essentially three things: 

1. taking an existing word (or musical idea) and responding to/repurposing it
2. the tension that exists between that new idea and the original one
3.  a way of subverting power structures through language

This piece is an appropriation of the signifyin(g) spirit in hip-hop music production. It ‘signifies’ on the musical ideas contained in Mozart’s overture to ‘Clemenza di Tito’ by repurposing and recontextualising them. The ideas become timbrally, rhythmically and harmonically distinct and form a new sonic whole that exists in tension with the original. 

The piece also takes these ideas and warps them to resemble the musical languages of other composers in the canon, namely Stravinsky, Messiaen and Bartok.
This happens a lot in Hip-Hop, where sounds are taken from Black America􏰃s musical past (like soul of funk) and it becomes a way of communicating through a shared cultural memory.