Eden Lonsdale

and time signatures as the piccolo but is written in proportional or spatial notation where 20 millimetres of stave equals a quaver of the piccolo’s tempo (not clock time), which is mostly quaver equals metronome 26 to 34(!). Similarly, the Accanto piece is written in spatial notation, which, I would argue, negates the need for rhythmic notation, as the two things do the same job. While this might please the composer’s notational obsessions, for the player it is an easy get-out (used before by some of the older ‘new complexity’ composers) and means they simply don’t have to bother working out those rhythms. The problem is that you can hear this in the performances, where what might have been jagged, unexpected placements are evened out by the player’s natural ‘musical’ instincts based on, for example, their breathing, even heartbeat, and certainly some kind of internalised pulse against which to play the micro-‘off-beats’. Johnson further confounds things by stating, ‘The rhythmic language. . . is extremely complex and detailed, but it is treated in a flexible, almost “improvisatory” manner.’ So, despite there being much to fascinate and enjoy here, my ‘why?’ question still stands.