Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

This short work is a preparatory study for Piano Sonata #11: "Self Portrait" and was commissioned by Rainer Linz. It is a fugue of themes derived from the names of my wife and myself, which generate note rows and durations. These are intuitively intermingled without the use of theory, logic or normal fugal devices such as sequence, stretto etc, and are freely harmonised with counterpoint, hence the descriptor "empirical". The result is therefore resistant to imitation by artificial intelligence machines while remaining distinctly human in its conception and execution, despite its highly formulaic fugue template.

Work Details

Year: 2026

Instrumentation: Piano.

Duration: 2 min.

Difficulty: Advanced — Requires experienced understanding of fugue playing on piano.

Commission note: Commissioned by Rainer Linz.