Insecurity
Thibaut Bruniaux
‘Insecurity’ was selected as a finalist for the EBBA 2022 European Composer’s Competition,  with its premiere given by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band under the direction of David Thornton.  ‘Insecurity’ won the Audience Award, the Band Award, and was placed 3rd overall by the jury. 
 Over the past years, insecurity has become a recurring subject, as well as a political leitmotif and an ineffable but omnipresent sensation. So much so that this feeling paralyses our lives, even though it is only superficial compared to other really dangerous situations that the world is experiencing today. The piece Insecurity attempts to describe this distance between a real feeling of insecurity and a simulacrum of anxieties from all walks of life. The music is dense and brutal in its contrasts and nuances; it alternates between fast and oppressive measures and more meditative, slow moments which resound like a call for a return to calamity forming a prayer for a better world, or even the nostalgia of a past lost forever. The main motif of the piece is exposed, short and legato, during the first bars by the basses and is then taken up and transformed throughout the piece. It is then joined by a second motif which is more explosive in the cornets followed by the trombones. The slow and meditative passages give space for beautiful contributions to the soloists (flugelhorn, euphonium, cornet, baritone and soprano cornet) leading to an intense and dense choral theme. The sections follow one after the other, always in contrast with each other, and the piece ends with a frantic synthesis full of energy.