I'm studying Hiller.  I just listened to this and I've added it to my reference list.

on social media, it's easy to hit the like button to support something you like, but i've listened to this piece several times. would love to hear a live performance.

i can't tell if it's my "4/4" bias, but it seems that due to the power of 2 nature of Gray Codes, there is a distinct duple or quadruple feel. am I makng that up?

8 instruments can double a note in 255 ways, 256 if you count the possibility that no one at all plays the note.  A gray code permits exploring these 256 possibilities with minimal change from one sonority to the next.  A balanced gray code (a mathematical object not yet known to exist when I composed an earlier version of this piece!) allows all the instruments to start and stop the same number of times.

Jerry Hiller, brilliant and very radical composer, invented algorithmic music, opening up the promised land where I do much of my work.  He also once offered to help my synthesize a piece back in the day when that required a mainframe computer and very specialized hardware (I never followed up).  I was working on this piece when I read news of his death.

Didier Aschour directed the premiere in Paris.   I have no recording of that performance, so this is a midi realization.

In Memoriam Lejaren Hiller

Composer, mathematician, visual artist. 
Seeks collaboration with performers and choreographers.

Please don't spam this account!

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Tim Even

KSG

KSG

Robert Knote

MAU