Inhaling and exhaling quite deliberately as one plays a growing melody. Basically a flute piece, though other wind instruments are welcome to try it. 7-11 minutes.
The music is on 12 music stands, and the viola soloist makes the rounds, playing all the fragments in 6-8 minutes.
Nine miniatures in phrases of 12 and 13 notes, following the rhythm of classical French poetry. 10 minutes.
Logical up-and-down progressions, dedicated to Didier Aschour. Five short movements in 9 minutes.
Twelve pieces for clarinet and narrator, or clarinetist/narrator. Also available in French as Histoires a dormir debout, and in German as Gutenachtgeschichten.
Four movements with a mathematical melody in one, two, three, and finally four voices. 6 minutes.
One of Johnson's most often performed pieces, written for Jon Deak, and also interpreted by Bertram Turetzky, Gary Karr, and many other virtuosos. A classic among bassists.
The falling thirds are played by some solo instrument, the drum keeps the beat, and everything is the result of a drawing. Eight minutes.
The subtle differences between the colors of these two isntruments continue for 16 minutes. Harp and piano.
About the score, the composer writes : The numbers 1 to 19 represent 19 notes of the chromatic scale. Begin with the central chord (4, 11, 16), and following the lines, move to adjacent chords, always
This pieces makes good use of the fact that organ sounds can be held indefinitely, quite different from instruments that have to breathe, and the music is special in another important way. Usually when an
Any instrument may play these logical sequences, which become longer and longer, to infinity.
Kientzy Loops was written for the saxophonist Daniel Kientzy, who premiered it, with Reina Portuondo, at the ADAC in Paris on November 21, 2000, as part of a Meta Duo concert. In January 2001 the piece
A tubist talks to and plays with his instrument for seven minutes, in English.
Ten short pieces for flute or clarinet. In each piece the same phrase is played seven times. Six times there is a mistake, and once it is correct. Can you hear the mistakes? Do you prefer the correct or the
There are 120 permutations of five notes to play with bells or glockenspiel, and a question to be asked after each one. The text is given in English, French and German, and the piece lasts 25 minutes.
A collection of movements extracted from Organ and Silence, dedicated to John McAlpine. Premiered in Düsseldorf in September, 29, 2002. 25 minutes.
A collection of 28 organ pieces to be played separately or as a long recital. A minimal meditative kind of music with much more silence than sound. 120 minutes.
A young pianist can play a particular exercise 216 times in a single practice session of 45 minutes. How many times can he play the exercise in one minute? This and 13 other "piano problems," originally
21 systematic melodies for any melodic instrument(s). No. XV is the first "self-replicating" melody, and several other techniques, explained later in the book "Self-Similar Melodies," were first used
After each phrase, the listener is asked to decide whether the two things heard were the same or different. This test of perception skills can be presented silently and discreetly, or with vocal audience
The pianist talks and plays with his collaborator, a loudspeaker. A performance tape, made by the composer in 1969, is available, but it is preferable to make a new one, with the performer's own voice and
A variable loop turning around on seven piano keys. Written in 1973 and revised in 1993. About 12 minutes.
How can different rhythmic patterns be combined in such a way that no two patterns ever occur simultaneously and every beat is filled? "Tiling the line" is a subject that Johnson and several mathematicians