Suite I (1954)
(Suite No 1)

Suite (I) was written with the pianist David Tudor in mind and in the wake of John Cage's Music of Changes and the piano music of Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen: hence the technical difficulties of performance, some of the rhythmic complexities, and the fragmented-pointillistic textures. It's in three parts. Ten of the piano notes arc prepared, with various metal and rubber mutes; one additional note produces a buzz if play mezzoforte or louder. No prepared sounds appear in the first part (unless the pianist makes a mistake); the next two parts then aec a timbral metamorphosis. There are gamuts of durations freely used and gamuts of pitches and prepared sound, treated unvaryingly (that is, no transpositions, no composing with intervals, just working with a collection of sounds). Each part has its own rhythmic structure.