Recorded in 1985, this long piece, unpublished until now, belongs to the Gamelan series, which Philip Corner has worked for years and counting dozens of pieces. In the word of the author, the piece, for two pianists "...represents one of the most “curious” manifestation in the Gamelan series. The increment-link, high-to-low, is maintained on the chromatic scale of the piano keyboard, giving durations from 1 to 88. However they are realized in both directions at the same time. And counted out loud.
It is in 1972 that Corner co-founded Sounds out from Silent Spaces with his then wife, astrologist and medium Julie Winter. This workshop fostered the contemplation of sounds in nature without too many preconceived plans and focused on the ability to have open ears to both the surrounding world and the inner being. With some common points with Cage’s sound world (and eventually with Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening principles) together with its own nuances, the workshop meetings continued until 1979. The other milestone of this period is a deepening of knowledge about the gamelan, which Corner would show through his ‘Gamelan Series’—around five hundred pieces featuring varied levels of determinacy, in which he developed a somewhat poetic but mostly rigorously constructed writing, almost likened to poetic algorithms where each decision stage leads to new paths of sonorous options. These pieces could be interpreted on traditional gamelan instruments, while appealing to a sense of form resulting from minimalist repetitionism, as well as from various strategies of open and random music. Corner’s idea did not consist in repeating his own framework of “hard” musicological research, but in the possibility of expanding his ideas about resonant music, the use of metals and a strong concentration capacity, together with a meditative context derived from his interest in diverse forms of Oriental traditions, without neglecting intuitive, metaphysical or sensitive aspects.

Cardboard Folded cover
Folded insert with liner notes and bios in english
Images (scores) by Philip Corner