Inhaling and exhaling quite deliberately as one plays a growing melody. Basically a flute piece, though other wind instruments are welcome to try it. Duration 7-11 minutes. Download the score free of charge.
Kientzy Loops was written for the saxophonist Daniel Kientzy, who premiered it, with Reina Portuondo, at the ADAC in Paris on November 21, 2000, as part of a Meta Duo concert. In January 2001 the piece received the prize as the contemporary music premier for the year 2000 in the annual Victoires de la Musique Classique et du Jazz in Nantes.
The piece requires an accompanying recorded loop (which performers prepare however they like), and from beginning to end, the music turns around on this loop of eight notes: G F E D E F G D. This little melody is not as innocent as it looks, however, because it is “self-replicating,” which means that as it turns, the listener can also hear the same melody turning three times or five times slower than the basic melody. The cross-rhythms are brought out in different ways by the performer, who often needs to count in several tempos at once. 10 minutes, 12€.
Ten short pieces for flute or clarinet. In each piece the same phrase is played seven times. Six times there is a mistake, and once it is correct. Can you hear the mistakes? Do you prefer the correct or the incorrect phrases? 10€.
A rather difficult solo for trombone. Six minutes, 8€.
Any instrument may play these logical sequences, which become longer and longer, to infinity. 7€.
Available in a version by Daniel Kientzy.
21 systematic melodies for any melodic instrument(s). No. XV is the first “self-replicating” melody, and several other techniques, explained later in the book Self-Similar Melodies, were first used here. 18€.
The original recording by Eberhard Blum is now out of print, but there are two new recordings by Dedalus Ensemble in New World Records and Roger Heaton in Ants Records.
Six ways of transforming a melody of two notes into a melody of four notes, eight notes, 16 notes, 32 notes, etc. until you have a piece as long as you like. A rather formidable concentration exercise, which can also make an unusual recital piece.
Later expanded as Doublings, newly edited in 2018 for flexible instrumentation. 6€.
The music is on 12 music stands, and the viola soloist makes the rounds, playing all the fragments in 6-8 minutes.
Originally preceded by three previous pieces, that were ultimately destroyed. 10€.
