Harrison Birtwistle Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum

Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum, for ensemble (1977) The London Sinfonietta Elgar Howarth An interpretive key to Paul Klee s Twittering Machine can be found in the shifting of vocal emphasis from the described (machine) to the descriptor (twittering). The noise it makes is not peripheral to some greater purpose; twittering is, in fact, exclusively what this contraption was made to do. Four wiry birds perch on a crankshaft attached to a handle which presumably, when turned, initiates said twittering.