Instrumentation

fl.ob.cl.bcl.bsn.hn

Availability

A4 score 0571555780 (fp), and score and parts 0571563449 (fp) on sale

Programme Notes

The rules of A Musical Dice Game – first published in 1793 and ascribed to Mozart as K. 516f (with more than a little likelihood of authenticity) – allow for the throw of the dice to determine the order of 176 bars of given musical material, so organized as to produce each time by chance a 16-bar waltz. Obviously the rules have to be strictly obeyed if the waltz is to come out right. Although I have obeyed the rule – except for the fact that I used randomly-generated numbers instead of throwing the dice 176 times to get my eleven variations - I’ve also applied further random operations in variations 4, 6, 8, 10 and 11; allowed for the dice to fall sixteen times in succession on “8” in variation 7; and subjected the instrumentation to chance in variation 10.

The first performance was given in March 1991 in London by members of the Composers Ensemble. The U.S. premiere took place at Tanglewood Music Center in August 1991.

Colin Matthews

To Compose Without the Least Knowledge of Music

BBC Radio 3 (United Kingdom)

CD

To Compose Without the Least Knowledge of Music

4.28 am

BBC Radio 3 (United Kingdom)

CD

To Compose Without the Least Knowledge of Music

BBC Radio 3 (United Kingdom)

London Winds/Michael Collins

To Compose Without the Least Knowledge of Music

BBC Radio 3 (United Kingdom)

London Winds/Michael Collins

To Compose Without the Least Knowledge of Music

Royal Albert Hall (London, United Kingdom)

London Winds/Michael Collins