A crazy piece that changes affect every second or two, a bit like nervous cutting in an action movie, except that it’s a euroclassical rondo. Each museme stack has its very clear ‘meaning’. It switches mood as starkly as it switches key and takes on all contemporary styles from the galant to Papa Johann Sebastian’s toccatas and fantasias. First time I heard this piece I fell on the floor with side-splitting laughter every time the loud Neapolitan sixth chord was thrust at me. While there’s something of Monty Python and MTV about the piece, it’s also quite disturbing, I think. Where on earth were things going if you were living in Hamburg in 1785? Where are they going today in Europe and North America? Synchronised notation. My own recording, using the standard Piano preset on a Korg M1 synthesiser.
