Symphony No. 2, "The Imp of the Perverse"

The Imp of the Perverse is the title of Jeffrey Ching's Second Symphony.^[1] It is in a single fantasy-like movement lasting about fifteen minutes. The title comes from a story by Edgar Allan Poe, from which these lines serve as epigraph to the score:

I am not more certain that I breathe, than that the assurance of the wrong or error of any action is often the one unconquerable force which impels us, and alone impels us to its prosecution… In the case of that something which I term perverseness, the desire to be well is not only not aroused, but a strongly antagonistical sentiment exists.

Composition, world premiere, instrumentation

The Imp of the Perverse was composed in London between 30 October and 10 December 1992. Contrary to his usual methods, Ching worked straight into full score by sustaining the initial burst of inspiration for several weeks, almost in a trance-like state akin to

Jeunesses Musicales World Youth Orchestra under Woldemar Nelsson

premiered it on 19 July 1995. In this form, prepared in London from 16 February to 17 March 1995, the instrumentation is for piccolo, 2 flutes/piccolo II, 2 oboes, English horn/oboe III, 2 clarinets/E^b clarinet, bass clarinet/clarinet III, 2 bassoons, double bassoon/bassoon III, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 tenor trombones, bass trombone, timpani, 3 percussionists, and strings.

Programmatic content

As with

aleatory passages (where fragments are freely played by individual players without measure or fixed beat), but unity is sought through the pre-Classical passacaglia

technique (variations built around fixed melodic units). This leads to many false climaxes before the final one, a vast crescendo over a steady, pounding beat. The Poe story parallels the macabre elements in the symphony: A man commits the perfect murder, but after a long struggle with his soul finally gives himself up, not because of a guilty conscience, but because he cannot the resist the thrill of self-destruction, so falling prey to his ‘

imp of the perverse’. To Ching, this insane demonstration of existential

freedom—of a superhuman freedom not bound even by rational self-interest—was a distinctly modern psychological discovery by Poe, with many points of contact with the composer's transition from the comforts of Classical sonata form to the hazards of contemporary free form.

References

^ "The true, the beautiful: Ching's Symphony No. 2. Cecile's new triumph". Philstar.com. 25 October 2003. Retrieved 27 April 2024.

Programme brochure for
Jeunesses Musicales
World Youth Orchestra concert, Manila, 19 July 1995.

[1] "The true, the beautiful: Ching's Symphony No. 2. Cecile's new triumph". Philstar.com. 25 October 2003. Retrieved 27 April 2024.

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