Year: 2023

Duration: c. 3 minutes

Instrumentation: Baroque flute, alto recorder, harpsichord, fixed electronics

Premiere information: 23 March 2023, Performance Hall, Royal College of Music, London

Additional performance 18 June 2023

Notes:

Faster Horses juxtaposes the sounds of historical instruments with those of modern industry and hypermodern electronic music styles, creating a fusion piece that combines an experimental industrial-techno take on trap music with Baroque influences. The title is from an alleged quote by Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motor Company: “If I’d asked the people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” The piece takes a somewhat cynical look at Ford and the “good old days” of American industry that he represents, with its initial brutal, in-your-face timbres clashing with an abrupt, lyrical, Baroque interlude to comment on the nature of mass production, consumerism, industrial decline, and the effects of the automotive industry on my family, my home state of Michigan, and the US at large.