Symmetries
(Tom Johnson, performed by Samuel Vriezen and Dante Boon)
The Symmetries is a series of 49 very short pieces for piano four-hands
that Tom Johnson wrote on the basis of a number of drawings he had made
in 1980, using a music typewriter. These drawings were made up entirely
out of musical notation symbols, and were conceptual studies of
symmetry in music - the drawings being perfectly symmetrical, using the
musical symbols in a great variety of ways. The drawings themselves
were not playable scores, though, because the symbols for notes are
written on the drawings without clefs. The 4-hands piano pieces are
practical elaborations of the drawings.
Dante Oei & I performed the Symmetries a few times in concert, to
the delight of the composer, who asked us to record the piece for him,
which we did in 2004 at Studio Grasland in Haarlem.
The CD is now available on the Karnatic Lab
Records label.