Endgame Study

In chess composition, an endgame study is a contrived position, for only a few pieces, invented as a puzzle. (Endgame studies appear in manuscripts as early as the 9th century. Some chess masters have composed hundreds, and some even retire from playing chess to focus on endgame composition!) Endgame Study follows a simple logic: a continuous restriction of possibilities, with a parallel constriction of musical space. It begins as a loose, limp improvisation with few restrictions. In time, more parameters are specified and notes are increasingly written out exactly. Intervallic possibilities diminish, and harmony blooms. Rhythmic possibilities diminish and meter emerges. The funnel tightens, intensifying energy and crushing structure until the striated becomes smooth again. [Much is made of the “unity of the time and pitch domains,” Stockhausen’s reminder that sound is vibration, and vibration is rhythm. Endgame Study suggests, in broad strokes, the unity of the stylistic domain. Cage – Glass – Scelsi – three settings on one dial?]
[Read by Speculum Musicae]