Perpetuum mobile

In music, perpetuum mobile (English pronunciation /pərˌpɛtjʊəm ˈmoʊbɪleɪ/, /ˈmoʊbɪli/; literally, "perpetual motion"), moto perpetuo (Italian), mouvement perpétuel (French), movimento perpétuo (Portuguese) movimiento perpetuo (Spanish), carries two distinct meanings: first, as describing entire musical compositions or passages within them that are characterised by a continuous stream of notes, usually but not always at a rapid tempo; and also as describing entire compositions, or extended passages within them that are meant to be played in a repetitious fashion, often an indefinite number of times.

Types of perpetuum mobile composition

A well-known example as a technique is the presto finale of Frédéric Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2: This figuration of rapid triplet quavers (eighth notes) continues for the duration of the movement.

As a distinct composition, perpetuum mobile can be defined as one in which part or most of the piece is intended to be repeated an often unspecified number of times, without the "motion" of the melody being halted when a repeat begins.

Canons are often intended to be performed in a moto perpetuo fashion, and can thus be called canon perpetuus.

In some cases the repeats of a "perpetuum mobile" piece are at a different pitch, 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 encores, in some cases increasing the tempo along the repeats.

Examples

Perpetuum mobile pieces of both kinds include:

Baroque period

The Preludio from Bach's Partita for Violin No. 3 consists almost entirely of sixteenth notes.

Classical period

The finale of Haydn's String Quartet No. 53 in D major ("The Lark"), Op. 64, No. 5
The finale of Beethoven's 22nd piano sonata, and large segments of the finales of his Tempest and Appassionata sonatas (although these are not very fast; the Tempest and the 22nd sonata are only marked Allegretto, and the Appassionata is marked Allegro ma non troppo)
The second of Franz Schubert's Impromptus, D. 899
The fourth of Franz Schubert's moments musicaux (likewise not very fast, marked Moderato)

Romantic period

The finale of Carl Maria von Weber's Piano Sonata No. 1
Charles-Valentin Alkan's Le chemin de fer, op. 27, for piano
Felix Mendelssohn's Perpetuum mobile, op. 119, for piano
Ottokar Novacek's Perpetuum Mobile, for violin and piano
Nicolò Paganini's Moto perpetuo Op. 11 (No. 6) for violin[lower-alpha 1]
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee, an interlude for his opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan
Johann Strauss II's Perpetuum Mobile: musikalischer Scherz for orchestra
Robert Schumann's Hasche-Mann from Kinderszenen
Bedřich Smetana's Album Leaf No.3 from Six Album Leaves Op. 2
Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, third movement
Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6, third movement

20th century

Mouvement (from Images, Set 1), a 1905 piano composition by Claude Debussy
Perpetuum Mobile (from Die allerersten Vortragsstueckchen des jungen Cellisten Op.19) by Hugo Schlemüller (1912)
The second movement of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2 (1912–1913)
Trois Mouvements perpétuels, a 1918 piano composition by Francis Poulenc
The end of the opera Wozzeck, Act III Scene 5, by Alban Berg (1914–1924)
The last movement of Maurice Ravel's Violin Sonata No. 2 (1923–1927)
The organ solo (movement 7) from Janáček's Glagolitic Mass (1926)
The last movement of the Violin Concerto by Samuel Barber (1939)
The last movement of Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra(1943)[1]
Prelude no. 2 in A minor from 24 Preludes and Fugues by Dmitri Shostakovich (1950–1951). Also the third movement of his Symphony No. 8 in C minor
The final movement of Benjamin Britten's Cello Sonata in C Major Op. 65 (1960). Also the third movement of his Suite for Violin and Piano Op. 6 (1935), the finale of his first solo cello suite (1964) and the penultimate movement of his third cello suite (1972)
Arvo Pärt's orchestral Perpetuum mobile (1963)
"Perpetuum Mobile" by Michael Roberts, used as the startup music for Thames Television and earlier ABC Weekend TV[2]
"Perpetuum Mobile for pedals alone" a showpiece for Organ by Wilhelm Middelschulte
"Fracture", a moto perpetuo piece based on the whole-tone scale composed by guitarist Robert Fripp and included on the 1974 album Starless and Bible Black
"Canto Ostinato" by Simeon ten Holt (1976)
John Adams's Short Ride in a Fast Machine (1986)
"Perpetuum Mobile" by Penguin Cafe Orchestra (1987)
"Velocities (Moto Perpetuo)" for solo marimba by Joseph Schwantner (1990)
"Equus" by Eric Whitacre (2000)

21st century

The album Perpetuum Mobile by the German avant garde group Einstürzende Neubauten has some examples of the concept
Neil Peart's drum solo "Moto perpetuo" on Rush's 2011 album Time Machine 2011: Live in Cleveland
"Nonstop" by Juan María Solare, piano solo invention in the time signature 5/8 (2020).

References

Notes

This is most often performed with a rather insignificant obbligato accompaniment. When scored for wind instruments, it becomes a virtuoso challenge of circular breathing and double-tonguing. Béla Fleck has performed it on the banjo.

References

"Concerto for Orchestra (Béla Bartók)".
"Salute to ABC - Start-ups - Transdiffusion". www.transdiffusion.org. Retrieved 2018-02-13.

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[paganini-1] This is most often performed with a rather insignificant obbligato accompaniment. When scored for wind instruments, it becomes a virtuoso challenge of circular breathing and double-tonguing. Béla Fleck has performed it on the banjo.

[2] "Concerto for Orchestra (Béla Bartók)".

[3] "Salute to ABC - Start-ups - Transdiffusion". www.transdiffusion.org. Retrieved 2018-02-13.