This is a different take on the same germ of an idea underlying Études Nos. 2, 4, and 5; it contains every possible 3- and 4-voice chord, ordered first by identity in the soprano voice and second by descending dissonance, repeated in 17 major sections expressing the full gamut of Hindemithian tonality: from A, up through the circle of fifths (E, B, F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, F, C, G, D) and then precipitously back down enharmonically (Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb) to the so-called relative minor of the original tonal center.

The piece is structurally and texturally minimalist, but not thematically so. Nevertheless, no "composer" or "artist" appealed to any Muse for melodic inspiration at any point in the process of construction. The location, duration and frequency of every single note here (save for adjustments of register to improve voice-leading or accomodate individual instruments' ranges) was determined strictly by successive global application of mathematical processes informed by simple rules: the first of which was that identical adjacent notes in any voice should invariably be tied or consolidated to create rhythmic variety in the lines and thus relieve the tedium of the unrelenting 4-voice chorale structure at the piece's architectural foundation. This same tedium was also mitigated structurally, as the following paragraph exhaustively details.

To recapitulate and advance: the thematic, i.e., melodic logic of the piece is straightforward and continues uninterrupted from beginning to end, but the textural logic is palindromic and minimalist. Of the 17 major sections, the 9th - i.e., central - one is both the shortest in duration and the densest, being the only one consisting entirely of 4-voice writing. All eight of the remaining sections on each side of it (each of which are themselves texturally palindromic [containing five subsections, the third of which is also always its own shortest and densest, in 4-voice writing]) are extended by adding either introductions or postludes to each remaining 4-voice subsection: consisting of deconstructed versions of its own "mirror" substructure (i.e., subsection 1 pairs with subsection 5, 2 with 4, 4 with 2, and 5 with 1) with one entire voice and portions of two other remaining voices deleted, thus thinning the textures in these sub-subsections to alternating patterns of 3-, 2-, and 1-voice passages. Finally, the four major sections at each end of the composition - beginning and end - are additionally thinned and lengthened by tacking further introductions or postludes to them fashioned from "exploded" versions of the previously ignored 3rd, central, subsection, with all four voices staggered so they never appear in anything more dense, than 2-voice counterpoint. To summarize and simplify, then: the whole advances in gently undulating waves of 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-voice counterpoints, gradually becoming denser, with shorter harmonic pulses, until the densest and quickest, central section; after which the order reverses and the texture gradually thins and lengthens to the conclusion.

The dynamic levels, while also palindromic and moving by steps, follow a slightly different logic, consisting of two great waves meeting and overlapping at the central major section, which - together with the very first and the very last major sections - represents the quietest passages in the entire piece: pp-p-mp-mf-f-mf-mp-p-pp-p-mp-mf-f-mf-mp-p-pp.

In short, the whole composition easily "could have, should have" been entirely computer-generated at a single go by the programming equivalent of a Mozart, but in the real world of this lesser mortal the patient computer had to wait at several major stages while yours truly laboriously examined the feedback already produced and puzzled out strategies for improving the next result. The whole is an intricately comprehensive and balanced harmonic étude, after all - not an improvisation. If it tickles the imagination of any sentient being even slightly, it will have served its purpose in full.