Length / Year
5' / 1995

Instrumentation
six pianos

Performance History
World Premiere
Birmingham Symphony Hall
2nd November 1995
Piano Circus

London Premiere
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
13th November 1995
Piano Circus (recorded for subsequent broadcast on BBC Radio 3)

Subsequent Performances
Vale of Glamorgan Festival
1996
Piano Circus

(Also Hong Kong - date not known - Piano Circus)

US premiere
(Never Odd or Even)
The Piano Mill, Boston
22nd March 1998
Boston Musica Viva:
Vytas Hakys, David Hagan, Karen Harvey, Hugh Hinton, David Horne, Margaret Ulmer - pianos

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Programme Note
A palindrome is something which is the same backwards as it is forwards. This piece is a musical palindrome or, to put it more accurately, a series of musical palindromes. Pianos 2 &5 share a chord sequence which contains a series of harmonic palindromes which are clearly audible. 1 & 4 have a series of decorative rhythmic palindromes in the upper register of the keyboards.These rhythmic palindromes also operate as strict canons. Finally 3 & 6 each have a simple legato line in octaves in the lower register making a single melodic (and rhythmic) palindrome. This palindrome is also heard in canon. All these palindromes, being of different lengths, are phased so that the material is always heard in new relationships. The title, itself a palindrome (hence the grammatical error), refers both to the predominantly melodious nature of the piece and to the fact that Pianos 2 & 5, who provide the core material for the piece, play always either in straight syncopation or using multiple rhythms - 3 against 2, 4 against 6, 5 against 4, 9 against 8 etc. Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas !

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