Everything is Foreseen and Free Will is Given

Coming to write a piece for a piano competition — commissioned by the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition as a compulsory work for all contestants — I looked for a way to break the mannerisms of the genre: both its usual technical emphasis and the monotony of hearing the same piece again and again from many competitors. Virtuosity as a central value has never drawn me, in any genre, so it interested me to make something that would instead let each contestant reveal their own personality.

The philosophical maxim that gives the piece its title has occupied me since early childhood — the tension between free will and determinism. I decided to write a work of nine short sections, and each contestant must choose the order in which to perform them, assembling a piece of convincing meaning and structure. In this way all the material and all the components are “foreseen” and known in advance, and yet complete freedom of choice is given to every performer — including a connecting section that any player may use more than once, or not at all. The sections differ in character, yet motifs pass between them and musical connections can be found from one to another. I also chose to keep a single, steady inner pulse across all of them — sometimes felt as a quarter, sometimes an eighth, sometimes a sixteenth — but constant throughout. It was fascinating to hear so many different interpretations from different players.

Commissioned by Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition — as the compulsory work for all competitors.

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