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The tempo markings shown above make up an arch form where the overall pulse gradually slows before returning to the speed of the opening.
Unlike many pieces from composers of the European avant garde, Dérive proceeds at a constant four crotchet beats to the bar. Even so, with the speed of the crotchet beat fluctuating so consistently, together with the two rhythmical devices outlined below, the music provides very little sense of a regular beat at all.
The rhythmic interest and irregularity is generated from the constant use of grace notes played at the beginning of the beat. Sometimes as many as twenty grace notes are played before the main beat of the phrase, allowing even the most straight-forward pattern of crotchet beats to become unpredictable in their movement or pacing. Grace notes are requested to be played either stacatto or legato, or in different combinations of the two.
Dérive : bars 21 - 26
Rhythmic flexibility is also achieved by dividing each beat into many different groupings. The music from bar 41 divides the four crotchet beats into groups of four, five, six, seven and eight played simultaneously and sometimes themselves decorated with grace notes.
Dérive : bars 41 - 46
Towards the end of the piece, flowing rhythms break down and tiny gestural fragments of rhythm in the piano, formed of groups of just three or four notes, punctuate the held chord.
Dérive : bars 46 -54
All audio examples are provided with kind permission by Nimbus Records: CD NI5167 London Sinfonietta/George Benjamin
introduction : intro.to Dérive : a guide to Dérive : harmony : texture : tempo : influences : words : definitions