Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

'Mondnacht' or 'Moonlit Night' was composed for German pianist Lars David Kellner (Munich, Germany), and represents a Hommage à Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). In essence, the work attempts to present a symbolic representation of the various characteristic facets of the moon (Earth's only natural satellite) via its juxtaposition of an algorithmic variation of the melodic and rhythmic material in the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Sonata No. 13 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2 'Moonlight' (1801); the poem Mondnacht (1837) by German poet, novelist, playwright, literary critic, translator, and anthologist Joseph von Eichendorff (1788-1857); and the 'Magic Square of the Moon' (a magic square of order 9 with a magic constant of 369, in which each row, column and diagonal adds up to 369 - reduced to modulo 9 in a 9Ï9 matrice in order to accommodate the musical intentions of the compositional process). The work further serves as an exploration of the musical implications of combinatoriality as an organizational determinant in conjunction with heterophony - a musical texture whereby "two or more voices simultaneously perform variations of the same melody," but in contrast to conventional utilizations of this compositional device of a relatively 'aleatoric' vertical alignment of intervals, the work employs a set of algorithms, or automatons to construct the melodic and rhythmic counterpoint, generating an even more elaborate indeterminate structure, embedded in both a complex polypulse superstructure that expands and contracts in symmetrical fashion (bars 1-10) and an aleatorically conditioned two-part counterpoint representation of Beethoven's original tune (bars 11-53). The indeterminate structure of the first section is intentional, as the fragmentary introduction of the integral dotted quaver-semiquaver motive and triplet three-note arppegiated 'Moonlight Sonata' figures are meant to subconsciously alert the listener of the reciprocality. The climax at the golden ratio (approximately equal to 1.618, or 228.059 beats [discounting the additional 28 beats that serve as the closing tripartite coda], and therefore expected to occur around the 225-beat mark of the 369-beat compositional structure) introduces a more familiar 4/4 meter structure that now alludes to melodic and rhythmic elements in 'Moonlight Sonata' via its utilization of a custom algorithm modelled on its probabilistic physiognomy.

Work Details

Year: 2022

Instrumentation: Speaker, celesta.

Duration: 8 min.

Difficulty: Advanced — Professional

Dedication note: Hommage à Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Commission note: Composed for German pianist Lars David Kellner (Munich, Germany)

The composer notes the following submitted styles, genres, influences, etc in relation to this work:

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Sonata No. 13 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2 ‘Moonlight’ (1801) Joseph von Eichendorff (1788-1857) Mondnacht (1837) Magic Square of the Moon Golden Ratio Combinatoriality Algorithmic Composition Single- and Multi-State Probabilistic Automatons