Acceleration, deceleration, and the inconsistent nature of time are at the heart of Piano Trio “The Chronophage” by Tom Coult. Throughout the 17-minute work, cello and piano lines constantly speed up or slow down relative to one another, while the violin has only one role—to accelerate throughout. The listener feels clunky gear changes, as previously reliable demarcations of time seem unsteady, even unsafe. The trio’s subtitle comes from The Corpus Clock in Cambridge, a clock that plays with exactly this perception. Completely accurate every five minutes, the clock lurches unevenly from second to second, the grinding mechanism driven by the terrifying metal insect escapement known as the Chronophage (from the Greek meaning of time-eater).
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