A general introduction to Tom Johnson’s music, as well as many articles written from 1961 until 2018, with texts both In English and German. "I can not say that I always manage to find my music. Sometimes it still seems necessary to compose it, particularly when I want to produce another opera. I can say, however, that there is something particularly satisfying about projects where the logic (the music) seems to arise naturally from some discovery outside of myself, and where everything comes together with a minimum of tampering (of composing). There are absolutes, regardless of what Feyerabend thinks, and while it may often be difficult tofind them and see them and understand them, we can at least hear them,when the circumstances are just right."

Contents

Foreword by the Editors / Vorwort der Herausgeber

Interview: “I’m a rationalist.” Conversation with Libby Van Cleve / „Ich bin Rationalist“. Gespräch mit Libby Van Cleve

Writing Music/Musik schreiben:

● Puzzle Pages
● Between Silence and Stillness. Silent music / Zwischen Stille und Bewegungslosigkeit. Stille Musik
● Pirandello’s Vision. Opera Since 1972: A Personal Report / Pirandellos Vision. Oper seit 1972: ein persönlicher Bericht
● “I want to find the music, not to compose it” / „Ich möchte Musik finden, nicht komponieren“
● Autobiography – Truth – Interpretation. Explaining my music: Keywords / Autobiographie – Wahrheit – Interpretation. Schlüsselbegriffe zur Erklärung meiner Musik
● Microcosm and Macrocosm. On Form / Mikrokosmos und Makrokosmos. Über Form
● All Is Number. Found Mathematical Objects / Alles ist Zahl. Mathematische Objets trouvés
● Is This All Just Music? Music and Combinations / Geht es hier nur um Musik? Musik und Kombinationen
● „I believe that ...“ Music Metaphysics / „Ich glaube an ...“ Metaphysik der Musik
● Man and Machine. Twenty Years of Collaboration with Martin Riches / Mensch und Maschine. Zwanzig Jahre Zusammenarbeit mit Martin Riches
● Self-Similar Structures in My Music. An Inventory / Selbstähnliche Strukturen in meiner Musik. Eine Bestandsaufnahme
● Music that Has a Few Holes. Tiling in My Music / Musik mit ein paar Lücken. Parkettierung in meiner Musik
● Kirkman’s Ladies and Other Games. Drawings, Mathematics and Music / Kirkmans Schulmädchen und andere Spiele. Zeichnungen, Mathematik und Musik

Writing about Music / Über Musik schreiben:

● New Concepts of Logic and Beauty. Modern Music: A Reconsideration / Neue Formen von Logik und Schönheit. Moderne Musik – eine Neubetrachtung
● Writing Music and Writing about Music / Musik-Schreiben und Über-Musik-Schreiben
● The Voice of New Music. Introduction to the Book / The Voice of New Music. Einführung in das Buch
● Steve Reich’s “Drumming” / Steve Reichs „Drumming“
● The Minimal Slow-Motion Approach: Alvin Lucier and Others / Das minimale Zeitlupen-Konzept: Alvin Lucier und andere
● Male Soprano with Wings / Männlicher Sopran mit Flügeln
● David Tudor’s Homemade “Pulsers” / David Tudors selbstgebaute „Pulsers“
● What Is Minimalism Really About / Um was geht es beim Minimalismus wirklich?
● New Forms for New Music / Neue Formen für neue Musik
● Rationality and Irrationality / Rationalität und Irrationalität
● Music with no Boundaries. In Memoriam Morton Feldman / Musik ohne Grenzen. In Memoriam Morton Feldman
● Trust Is the Key. Mon Maître, Morton Feldman / Vertrauen ist der Schlüssel. Mon Maître, Morton Feldman
● Intentionality and Non-intentionality in the Performance of Music by John Cage / Absicht und Absichtslosigkeit in der Interpretation der Musik von John Cage
● An Awful Large Family. In Memoriam John Cage / Eine riesengroße Familie. In Memoriam John Cage
● “I would like to be like that”. In Memoriam Conlon Nancarrow / „So wäre ich gern“. Begegnung mit Conlon Nancarrow
● The Breath of God. Hymns / Der Atem Gottes. Hymnen
● Rugged Individual. Ives Reflections / Krasser Individualismus. Überlegungen zu Charles Ives
● Music and Minimalism. A European View / Minimalismus in der Musik. Immer noch auf der Suche nach einer Definition
● Five Categories. Minimal Music: Almost Forty Years Old and Growing
● Trying to Find Our Own Music. Robert Ashley / Auf der Suche nach unserer eigenen Musik. Robert Ashley

Introductions/Werkkommentare:

● Spaces
● An Hour for Piano
● Lectures with Audience Participation
● Sixty-note Fanfares for Four Antiphonal Trumpets
● Failing: A Very Difficult Piece for Solo String Bass
● Secret Songs
● Nine Bells
● Eight Patterns for Eight Instruments
● Movements
● Doublings for Double Bass
● Symmetries
● Counting Languages
● Counting
● Counting Duets
● Counting Keys
● Rational Melodies
● Self Portrait
● Voicings
● Predictables
● The Chord Catalogue
● Infinite Melodies
● Piano Problems
● Pascal’s Triangle
● Riemannoper
● Music for Eighty-eight
● Narayana’s Cows
● Maximum Efficiency
● Bonhoeffer Oratorium
● Tortue de la mer
● Septapede
● Pascal’s Triangle Modulo Seven
● Simultaneous Progressions
● Recycled Ostinato
● La vie est si courte
● Loops for orchestra
● Thirty-two Breaths
● Organ and Silence
● Kientzy Loops
● Galileo
● 1 2 3
● Organ and Silence for Piano
● Tilework
● Combinations for String Quartet
● Same or Different
● Kirkman’s Ladies
● 844 Chords
● Block Design for Piano
● 360 Chords for Orchestra
● Trio
● Counting Fives
● Fifty-five Chords
● Networks
● Vermont Rhythms
● Mocking
● Four-note Chords
● Munich Rhythms
● Waterfall in Fall
● Falling Thirds with Drum
● Tick Tock Rhythms
● Counting to Seven
● Intervals
● Tinkelenberg Rhythms
● Slight Variations
● Five Notes for Five Instruments
● Plucking
● Seven Septets
● Deep Rhythms

List of Works/Werkverzeichnis

Index