Two pianists journey together through a circular universe of
twenty possible worlds. The worlds appear and disappear one by one,
echoed between the two piano parts, and up to four of them may be
present at the same time in a gradually shifting multi-cultural mosaic
of musical worlds.
In this piece, just as in the 5 extremely short "possible world" pieces
I wrote in 2003, a 'world' is identified by a typical basic motivic
gesture. Each 'world' varies on its basic gesture according to its own
laws. These twenty worlds (Possible Worlds nr. 6-25?) are then
intertwined to appear in eighty numbered sections. The eighty sections
are arranged in a circular way: section 1 can follow section 80. The
odd sections are only played by pianist I. Pianist II plays the even
sections. Taken together, the odd and the even sections make use of the
same material.
20 Worlds is dedicated to Dante Oei. If not for the many conversations
we've had about Cage, Xenakis, Sibelius, etc. and his wonderful
insights and intuitions about music, a piece like this would have been
unlikely.