Patterns from the Game of LifePart III: Pairs & Singlesfor piano solo[9:34]This is the last of three volumes of music evolved from Game of Life starting-graph configurations. For solo piano (full-ranged, not the "toy" of Vol. I), it builds on patterns with vertical dimension 26 ro 83 units, translating to keyboard ranges of roughly 2 to 7 octaves. There are 17 movements,
Where a source image height and width differ, it is set musically twice: first as initially specified ("Hori"-zontally), then in its 90 degree rotation ("Vert"-ically) - i.e., musically speaking, with Pitch and Time swapped. Where height and width are the same, with the corresponding image virtually identical upon rotation, it is presented once ("H=V").
Regarding clusters: As the default chord content is often unmanageable for both scoring and performance, I have trimmed accordingly, imposing two notational constraints: any chord has just one stem; its intervals are spelled diatonically where possible (so with accidental types inevitably mixed). Linearly, spelling attempts to honor "voice leading" where the latter is audibly suggested.
I imagine this work being performed, not in its entirety, but in variously selected handfuls of from three to perhaps seven items at most - with one constraint, that any Hori/Vert-sectioned movement be performed as its full contiguous pair.
The Game of Life input patterns inspiring these pieces are listed by name, discoverer and date at score's end. For full information on any, access site ConwayLife and search on its name. For comment on their compositional treatment, see my NOTES in two earlier scores, ThinRake and No!.