Donald Clarke wrote:

>... the main piece was something about clocks, just a lot of
>ticking and tocking."

Let's not be automatically dismissive about the occasional use of
extra-musical sounds.  Mahler used hammer and cowbells in symphonies,
RVW deliberately retained the wind machine when he reworked film music
for his "Antarctic" symphony, etc.  etc..  [Here's a question for a
parlor game: list serious musical compositions which make use of unserious
instruments or sounds.]

The Moravec piece in question is his "Time Gallery", which uses
extra-musical devices sparingly and, I think, mostly to good effect.
The first movement, "Devotional Hours" starts with the tolling of bells,
introducing a deeply felt, polyphonic meditation in which bells recur
occasionally within the music.  Clocks, ticking at different speeds,
introduce the 2nd movement, "Time Machine": a scurrying scherzo emerges
from the ticking, nervously changes tempo a couple of times, and works
to a climax built from small variations on a really catchy, ear-wormish
phrase.  The last movement ("Overtime: Memory Sings") starts with a few
maybe unnecessary chimes, and then turns wistful, elegiac, and I think
rather beautiful.  The only section that doesn't work for me is the 3rd
movement ("Pulse"), which starts with a soft heartbeat that leads into
another jagged but unmemorable scherzo.

Jon Gallant
Department of Gnome Sciences

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