ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on Michael Finnissy’s chamber music focused upon the ways in which Finnissy articulates multi-dimensional temporal schemes, particularly in the works Afar, as when upon a tranced summer night, and alongside. It expands on an aspect of his first, in order to give a detailed account of Finnissy’s notational practice, an area often casually remarked upon, but never investigated in detail. The book setups a methodology for examining the cycle as a whole through assembling disparate materials into three ‘macro-categories’ of Chords, Gestures, and Lines, each of which are further divided into sub-categories. It considers questions of performance, in relation to fundamental ontological questions appertaining to Finnissy’s work. The book deals more intensely with composition and the compositional process. It presents the most in-depth treatment to date of Finnissy’s relationship to film and moving images, considering the subject from multiple perspectives.
