Chinese Pictures

Written in June 1993 in Hohegeiss in the Harz Mountains, these four pieces demonstrate the reduced texture of his late style. The musical material is deliberately limited: each respective piece is based on different motivic cells consisting of two or three notes, which are then elaborated by means of developing variation as well as contrasting reference and derivation. In some respects the music recalls idioms of various types of East Asian flutes. With the exception of the third piece, The Actor with the Monkey, the Chinese Pictures are influenced by programmes of Buddhist origin.