Marked “sotto voce e legato” (literally “under the breath and smoothly”), the entire movement is a musical stream of consciousness of unremitting parallel octaves, with unvarying tempo and dynamics, and not a single rest or chord until the final bars. Examples from classical music include the presto finale of Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. In both cases, there should be no interruption in the ‘motion’ of the music.

whole pieces, or large parts of pieces, which are to be played repeatedly, often an indefinite number of times.

pieces or parts of pieces of music characterised by a continuous steady stream of notes, usually at a rapid speed.

The title is Latin for “perpetual motion” (or continuous motion) and in music it refers to two things: Perpetuum Mobile is one of PCO’s most famous pieces, and comes from their fifth album, ‘Signs of Life’ (1987). A number of their works are very familiar as they have been used in film, tv and advertising.

The music also contains references to South American and African music, and uses a variety of instruments including strings, pianos, harmoniums, slide guitars, cuatros, kalimbas, experimental sound loops, mathematical notations and more.

It is hard to categorise their music, but it combines elements of exuberant folk music, and the minimalist music of composers such as Philip Glass or Michael Nyman. The Penguin Café Orchestra (PCO) was a collective of musicians, founded by Simon Jeffes in the 1970s. Box office: 08700 600 100.Several of my students have been learning and enjoying this well-known piece by the Penguin Café Orchestra, and so I thought it might be helpful to have some background about the band and the music.

By somehow merging the experimentation of John Cage with the tunefulness of Percy Grainger, Jeffes created a body of work that people will hum, play and study for decades. Happily, this appeal goes beyond fun and nostalgia.

These musicians, including PCO stalwarts Neil Rennie (ukelele), Helen Liebmann (cello) and multi-instrumentalist Geoff Richardson, make it sound effortless, and their emotional performance earns a standing ovation. There's a PCO 'feel' - a lightness of touch plus a rolling inflection that hints at every kind of world rhythm - that brings the notes to life. They shift easily from the precise repetitions of Perpetuum Mobile, to the weirdly catchy Telephone and Rubber Band, to the final encore of Red Shorts, a moving piece for string trio, piano and trombone (Annie Whitehead).īut you need more than good technique to play this music. The PCO musicians are similarly expert at joining the dots in Jeffes' beguiling compositions.

Perpetuum mobile penguin cafe orchestra