Looking Outwards 06: Randomness

I really liked KLAVIERSTÜCK XI by Karlheinz Stockhauen. Somehow, I felt that there is the usage of randomness in this piece of musical notes. There is a vivid pattern that Karlheinz follows, which I feel integrates randomness within his routine, which is really intriguing. However, there are hints of specific numbers too, such as he stops playing the notes which he has played 3 times. His notes are referred to as ‘pile of leaves’ which is owed due to the randomness of the notes, however, these notes are derived through constant trial and error and manipulated for musical composition means. I also admire the fact that all his notes read as a single piece produce a seriality within, which might come off as a meticulously planned structure. The structure of the notes is such that the other pianists are not able to replicate more than one piece of the whole thing. I do not know much about the approach Karlheinz took to generate these notes, as it seems randomly generated, but it commands attention as it makes complete musical sense when played together. Karlheinz’s intention is unclear in the final piece as no one knows about the origin of its motives, however, I am sure that for Karlheinz it is the manifestation of musical piece that he intended to portray.

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