Strandbeest

Listen to the work here!
 
Strandbeest is a composition for sax quintet (SAATB), inspired by the walking automata of Dutch artist Theo Jansen. These automata are massive creature-like constructions with many legs, which are powered completely by wind. The title of Jansen’s creations translates loosely from Dutch as “beach animal”, and Jansen often exhibits his Strandbeests walking along coastlines, where the maritime breeze gives life to the wind-powered creations, creating the surreal image of a many-legged, faceless but gentle creature, walking softly along the beach. The inner structure of Jansen’s creatures give rise to walking patterns where each leg touches ground in rapid succession like a caterpillar, and that soft puttering of mechanical legs, as well as the joy of watching the gentle giants stroll along the coast, lends inspiration to this work. Several key moments in the work highlight this caterpillar-like leg motion, where short rhythmic cells are displaced one eighth note at a time between consecutive voices.
 
The name Strandbeest is the invention (and the name of the invention) of Theo Jansen, and no attempt is made in any way to pass off the title as being of my own design, or infringe on Jansen’s intellectual property. The piece is simply a love letter to these beautiful wind-powered machines.