ABSTRACT
The seemingly unrelated simultaneities, which are characteristic of many forms of Japanese traditional music, are registered as a precedent for the kinds of simultaneities with which Michael Finnissy’s music at that time was centrally concerned. The percussion setup is typical of Finnissy’s music in consisting of a highly restricted set of instruments: a maraca, plus four tomtoms, and a suspended cymbal always played with hard sticks. Nevertheless, within a short time of the completion of alongside, there occurs a profound shift in Finnissy’s points of musical reference. The ornamentations in the brass parts bring up the question of idiomatic instrumental writing in Finnissy’s music of the period, which frequently employs such features, along with quartertones, seemingly with scant regard to how they might actually be realised. The music is fragmenting into its constituent components. But the division of musical behaviours between the instruments does not correspond precisely to this division.
