Playtime
for one or two chime sets

Siegfried Koepf 1994 – 2001

Program note

Playtime is one of my combinatorial compositions. My main interest in these works is to develop algorithmic methods of composition, based on preliminary combinatorial considerations. Combinatorics forms the horizon within which material, time and again anew, is declared to be musical material and made available for the compositional process.

One example of a basic combinatorial set of figures is the set of all possible combinations of 18 tubular bells. In Playtime, a set is defined as the Cartesian product of all possible two-part chords made with 18 tubular bells.

Thus, a set of remarkable scope – 23.409 elements in total – is created. Obviously, reasonable processing of such an amount of data has only become possible with the help of computers. The main compositional work is to create appropriate computer programs to analyse, filter, sort and assemble the selected material.

Finally, the piece is combined with a title.