The Book of Stillness
Sheet Music

Piano

SKU: PE.EP71569

Composed by Geoffrey Poole. 3D. Duration 00:14:00. Edition Peters #EP71569. Published by Edition Peters (PE.EP71569).

to Helen Reid (K'un) and Nicolas Hodges

First performance: Nicolas Hodges, Bristol Victoria Rooms Bristol, 19 March 2003

K'un alone: Helen Reid, Park Lane Young Artists Series, Purcell Room London, 4 January 2003

This work is part of a compendium in progress of 64 piano pieces representing the hexagrams of the I Ching or Chinese 'book of changes'. Reputedly the oldest book in the world, this interprets life and nature as a ceaseless flow (or path, Tao) of changing states. Its texts encourage understanding of the rhythm and character of each current situation.

As The Book of Stillness was the first set to be written (in 2002), it had to mark out a territory distinct from John Cage. Where he famously used the I Ching for its random coin-tossing techniques to produce an iconoclastic music, very 1950s, I sensed a contemporary need for the renewal of endangered cultural traditions (Taoist and pianistic), moving forward by taking nourishment from the past. This book is based on the trigram K'un, with its principles of receptivity, acceptance, and nourishment. -- Geoffrey Poole