A Performing Monkey Game

This open-form work for string trio explores structuring stochastic music as visual programming. Examining Pierre Boulez’s comments on John Cage depicting him as a “performing monkey”, the composition of this piece was informed by experiences undertaken in the 60s in which gorillas were taught American Sign Language. Upon training, the gorillas became able not only to follow the signs but to actually understand meanings and aural elements of language. Presented as a visual programming algorithm, the score offers a structure for the performers to navigate an aleatory form by way of making audible decisions and listening to each other’s choices, challenging the boundaries between music-making and gaming as well as between animals, humans and machines.