Interpreting Compositional Process in Wolfgang Rihm's Chiffre Cycle

In Rihm's output the Chiffre works occupy a pivotal position. Despite some prefiguring in 
certain earlier works, such as the last movement of the fourth quartet, these are works 
which, as he has said, embody a conscious search for a musical language, a means of 
expression ('Die Stucke … sind Versuche, eine Musiksprache zu finden').1 The purpose of 
this article is to try to define key elements of the compositional process which Rihm 
developed through the Chiffre works.

relation to what has gone before. The choice of Chiffre VI as the main focus for the second part of this article is not conditioned by its being summative in nature: that distinction belongs to Chiffre VII insofar as it is a relevant way of viewing the cycle as a whole. However the reasons for choosing Chiffre VI as a focus will become apparent in due course.
Rihm's first published use of the word chiffre was in a programme note for Sub-Kontur (1974-5) and, in the same year, in a programme note for the second symphony (1975). 5 Originally an Arabic word signifying zero, the word exists with multiple meanings in French, Italian and English (in the form 'cipher') but in German usage it is borrowed from French and can mean a symbol, a box, a code, a sign, or a key.
These multiple meanings of the word can be applied to the way the music should be heard, as will be discussed later. Rihm drew inspiration from Artaud in the creation of 'a new form of musical expression that would be immediate and direct; that would be understandable to all; that would deal with irrational states of being and understanding'. 6 It is not unreasonable to suggest a connection between Rihm's title and Nattiez' concept of sound as signifier. 7 Rihm has allied some of the ideas of his teacher Stockhausen to theoretical aspects of Artaud's work, thereby creating a sense of the theatrical within his own music.
A programme note, written after the composition of the first three works in the cycle and before the fourth was completed, describes each work as a 'free-standing part of a kind of "work in 'progress"' ('[…]' "selbständige Teile einer Art 'work in progress'"), written 'as hieroglyphs, cuneiform scripts, strange signs -but just signs in sound, script in sound, absolute music, no histories.' 8 These works were written to be 5 'In Sub-Kontur, ist es der Typus des Melodie-Adagios, einer Chiffre […]' ('in Sub-Kontur it is the type of "melody Adagio", a cipher …'), in, Rihm, Ausgesprochen, Vol. II, p. 298. Second symphony: ''[…]'' zudem eine Chiffre für symphonischen Tonfall' ('in addition a cipher/sign for symphonic intonation'), in, Rihm, Ausgesprochen, Vol. II, p. 300. However, the exact significance of 'Chiffre' for Rihm in both of these two references is not clear, with regard to what the actual 'cipher' is: in the programme note for the CD of Chiffre IV (see note 23) he says ingenuously, Chiffre ist '[…]' eine Chiffre!. We should also note that in his 1985 article on the Chiffre cycle to that point, entitled Werk and Werkzyklus, Rudolf Frisius quotes from Rihm's commentary at the premiere of Chiffre VI on 16 April 1985(in Musiktexte 11,1985: 'Chiffre ist ein so vieldeutiges Wort: Es heißt Zeichen, es heißt Zahl '' […]'' Es sind Chiffren, die man dechiffrieren kann -nicht muß. Die können auch stehen bleiben. Eine Zeichensprache. Man kann sie auch verstehen aus dem Bewegungsimpuls '[…]' (Chiffre is such an ambiguous word: it means sign, it means number. There are 'Chiffres' that one can decipher -but it is not essential. They can also remain as they are. A sign language. One can also understand them as coming out of the movement impulse). Rihm's use of Zeichen is discussed later. Rihm's linguistic register can be particularly difficult to interpret and I am extremely grateful to Ulrich Mosch at the Sacher Foundation who helped me a great deal in the translation of the German texts, but, any errors are my responsibility! Since there is this difficulty with the text I decided to retain Rihm's original with my translation in all cases to allow other scholars quick access to the texts to which I have referred.

'free '[…]' from progress and process direction' ('frei '[…]' von Verlaufs-und Verarbeitungsvorgaben'),
collections of moments of singular events in sound (Einzelereignisse) not in imitation of his teacher Stockhausen, nor in homage, but drawing on the older composer's concept.
Rihm's music of the 1980s habitually balances activity with stasis. This is not done in a pre-planned way and the analyst looks in vain for traditional generative processes. Nevertheless his music relies for its effect on the manipulation of the dramatic: the gesture as signifier. These gestures are primarily chordal or motivic which operate within a static framework provided by generally invariant tempo and constant metre.
The significance of Rihm's programme notes for the Chiffre cycle will be explored later but in order to understand better the compositional imperatives at work in the cycle it is helpful to utilize some of the 'sound words' he uses when writing about the works. These words act as verbal signifiers for the musical processes and it is therefore important to be able to translate them into the musical gestures to which they relate 9 as a basis for the analysis of Chiffre VI which follows.

Chiffre [1]
'As if the attack writes itself into the sound body, so that it describes the empty sound space '. 10 The concept of Klangraum is a key component in Rihm's compositional thinking and this quotation from the Chiffre [I] programme note provides a metaphor for the 'Soundspace'. It suggests a certain aggressive damaging of the virgin canvas and evokes the graphic arts in its effect. It also suggests particular sonic qualities which result from the idea of 'attack'. Klangraum can be defined by a number of different attributes but most often by the chordal components and/or by characteristics of the instrumentation. In the Chiffre works three elements dominate the pitch components of the Klangraum: single chord or unison/octaves either sustained or repeated rhythmically, sometimes creating 'focus pitches'; brief motivic idea(s), often expressed as arabesques; short chord sequences. While there is no sense of progression through these components or within the chordal strata, each of the elements have recurring characteristics influencing continuity across each work. The repeated pitches do not serve a structural function except where they are being utilised as focus pitches (a typical use will be found in Table 3, as labelled), and 9 Within the programme notes for the Chiffre series and Bild one finds the following 'soundwords': Klang -körper; -körperteile; -raum; -objekten; -zeichen (or Zeichen im Klang); -schrift (or Schrift im Klang); -plastik; -texte; -farben; -aktion; -hiebe; ein neuer, anderer Klang; Klavierklang; (bewegter Klang). The same preoccupation can also be seen in the article reprinted in Wolfgang Rihm, Offene Enden ed. Ulrich Mosch (Munich, Vienna: Carl Hanser Verlag 2002), p. 129. neither do the motivic/arabesque ideas function structurally in a traditional formal manner although they undoubtedly contribute to the sense of continuity within the cycle.

Pitch [chordal strata]
It is, above all, through the manipulation of the chordal strata that Rihm seeks a structural coherence for this series of works and consequently in the works of the Chiffre cycle it is the chordal elements which have the greatest importance within the pitch domain of the Klangraum. One of the most significant of the chord types, found throughout, certainly originated in the chamber opera Jakob Lenz . In his programme note for the opera Rihm identifies this chord as 'the sound underlying the whole work', 11 and the same chord, allowing for changes in disposition and inversion, is a 'generative pole' for the first of the Chiffre works, as will be seen in Ex. 1b. It is possible that Rihm's use of this particular chordal structure simply stems from a desire to retain connections between works.
The phrase 'generativer Pol' was first used in the programme note for Chiffre [I], written in 1983 -'the short piece could be a generative pole of a bigger piece' ('das kurze Stück könnte der generative Pol eines größeren Stückes sein') and again in the programme notes for Gebild in the same year. It was subsequently highlighted in an interview between Rihm and Peter Sloterdijk as a useful way of describing the processes underlying the works of the 1980s. 12 It is a term I shall use throughout the article since it avoids the notion of development but at the same time implies a sense of progression.
A repoled idea essentially transforms a preceding idea while retaining the essence of that idea in some form. What is more, Rihm relies on his listeners to perceive this connection since he has created a strong sense of 'organic' growth within each work and across works in the cycle. I discuss this further in due course in the section on A Sound Transforms its Predecessor. A generative pole can consist of a thematic motif, (such as the opening motif of the fourth string quartet) which is subsequently placed in different contexts, often rhythmic, where, in essence, the pitch content remains invariant, and largely constant, while the rhythmic profile is subject to great variation. It can be designated as a pole because it is rooted in a central, usually pitch-based, idea around which the music turns. Such a situation occurs when, for example, part of a chord stays constant while the rest of the chord varies round it, accruing or losing density. So, the Lenz chord in Chiffre [I] retains its identity through the cycle as a pole or root, but has no tonal implication. 11 Rihm,Ausgesprochen,Vol. II, Peter Sloterdijk, Der generative Pol: Wolfgang Rihm in Gespräch mit Peter Sloterdijk (7.11.1988), in Österreichische Musikzeitschrift, XLIV 6, (June 1989), p. 281ff, and see Rihm, Ausgesprochen Vol. II, pp. 327-8. However it is a term that he uses in his own poetics within the article Musikalische Freiheit, for which see Rihm, Ausgespochen Vol. II, pp. 23-39. As a concept it is therefore clearly embedded in the context of his own writing. The term contains also the notion that the listener can take an active part in the process. This has led to other related sets of works where the concept is expressed in the title as for example in Pol -Kolchis -Nucleus dating from 1991/96. This chordal sequence leads directly into the first structurally significant shift of character in the piece -a short fanfare-like motif, which, as Ex. 2a and 2b show, is simply the pitch content of chord (i) transposed down a perfect 5 th (T5). 14 Although this motif occurs in the sketch material on the same page as the chord sequence (d)(h)(d 1 ), there is no indication there of an exploited relationship between them.
Motif 1, 15 transferred to piano, leads directly into Motif 2, the only other recurrent non-chordal thematic entity in the work. Although conceived as a unit, this new motif essentially splits into two parts (Ex. 3).
The motif builds upon the interval of a major 3 rd borrowed, and hence repoled, from Motif 1 although the layout of the sketches for the work suggests that Motif 2 may have been written first. 14 Chord (i) and therefore potentially chord (h) can be construed as having been derived (either consciously or unconsciously) containing the key elements of the opening chord of Schoenberg's Six Little Piano Pieces Op.19/6, and given Rihm's high regard for Schoenberg's atonal works, such an association is not unlikely. 15 Frisius views the pitch G (see Example1b last pitch) as the start of the motif, or as he terms it, Unison-melody, in, Frisius, 2004, pp. 85-6. My interpretation is derived from the sketches and Frisius does not appear to have used these. I would therefore derive bb. 30-1, pitches G,D,C# as a melodic expression of the Lenz chord. The (a) section of Motif 2 is derived from the juxtaposition of two dyads, moving chromatically in contrary motion, whereas the (b) section of the motif reuses the dyads created as generative entities. Despite having been originally conceived with varying time signatures in its final form this motif is simply integrated into the constant four-crotchet metre of the whole work: Rihm's use of a largely static time signature will be explored in due course. In the compositional sequence it is significant that the first dyad f 3 ,a 3 (first bar left hand Ex. 3a) was added later to the sketch since this links the opening pitches of the motif, in the upper and lower parts respectively, directly to the generating chord sequence (d)(h)(d 1 ).
My reading of this work is rather different from that of Rudolf Frisius who identifies five main sections but, for the most part, no further sub-sections of these. He divides these into: bb. 1-27; 27-75; 75-87/8; 87/8-108/9; 108/9-173; 174-76 (close) and his subsequent analysis is based on elementary aural events (Hörereignisse) and larger formal units (Abschnitte) which interact -sound units which tend to be shorter than those I am proposing. For Frisius the importance of Chiffre [I] is that it points towards a development in Rihm's thinking in differentiating between structure and form (das zwischen Struktur und Form differenziert). 16 Frisius views the first motif as an extended 'melodic' idea starting from b. 27 and ending with the open fifth e 1 ,b 1 at b. 32 (in its most condensed form this is bb. 27-29), which he then relates to b. 77 in what is effectively a repoling of the dyad D,C# (Frisius does not use the term 'repoling' to articulate this).
However, I have read this as a structural subsection of a larger unit as will be seen in Table 1 (sections 1b and 1b 1 ).
After Chiffre II, in which they reappear, neither of these motifs recur again, 17 although some of the chords are 'repoled' with their densities increasing from Chiffre III to Chiffre VI in order to reach a climax point on a 12-note chord in Chiffre VI, the only work in the cycle not to include the piano (Ex.4 and see also  13-19, and in Werk und Werkzyklus, in, Musiktexte 11, 1985, pp. 17-26. In fact there are very few musical ideas in the cycle which would properly be classed as motivic if the principal criterion of a motif is that it should have some structural significance. economy played a part here, but within these constraints there are constant features which need to be understood. The instrumentation for each work (excluding detail of individual percussion instruments), is given in the Appendix, and from this it is clear that there are timbral connections between compositions in the cycle. Thus Chiffre VIII reflects Chiffre [I], except that the trumpet is replaced by horn, and the clarinet and bassoon are reassigned to bass clarinet and contra-bassoon respectively. The bass clarinet creates a link between Chiffre [I] and Chiffre IV since it has a role in both, but it makes a more significant link between Chiffre III and Chiffre VI which both specifically feature the bass clarinet. The contra-bassoon in Chiffre VIII links this work with Chiffre II and Chiffre III but above all with Chiffre VI.
Rihm's preference for bass register is evident in his use of other low pitched instruments in addition to those already mentioned, namely, two cellos and double bass in Chiffre [I], III, V, VII and VIII, and bass trumpet in III, V and VII. These bass instruments serve in part to balance the bass register of the piano.  [I] Rihm describes the instruments as Resonanzraum, that is to say, a resonating space/resonator for the piano. The piano etches itself onto the instrument space (hence Rihm's use of Keilschriften), it leaves traces on the surface of the other, the surface is 'hurt'. Like many of his images this evokes techniques associated with Art, and in this case Graphic Art. silenced and is therefore absent but, paradoxically, it also makes its presence felt in its absence through its gestures being taken over by the other instruments. Although it is normally treated like a solo instrument ('Das Klavier ist wie ein Soloinstrument behandelt') 21 these are in no way concerti. The piano is certainly a protagonist, but not a heroic one. In Chiffre [I] and II it rarely contributes to the surrounding chordal texture. Instead, it defines the space in which the other parts operate since it plays either just the highest A on the piano or a trichord cluster fx 4 , g# 4 , a 4 in highest register and a trichord cluster C 3 , Bb 3 , A 3 in lowest.
These chords are articulated through rapid repeating rhythms akin to the writing in Rihm's Klavierstück VII (1980) and hence also like some of Stockhausen's piano writing from which it no doubt derives.
Subsequently the piano writes in this space itself and from his programme notes 22 it is clear that we are expected to perceive the interaction of instruments and piano as central to the cycle, and that the symbolism of the 'vanquished' piano in Chiffre VI is primarily metaphorical: the piano's absence is analogous to the musical silences -particularly of Chiffre II -which Rihm says 'must be beaten' ('geschlagen werden muß') and 'must be defeated' ('besiegt werden muß') but silence 'out of which the sounds leap' ('Schweigen, aus dem Klänge herausschlagen werden'), and sounds which are 'collapsed in the silence' ('Klänge, in die Schweigen hineinbricht').
It is harder to define the relationship of the unpitched percussion to the whole, in that their sounds do not generally relate directly to the piano or to the other instruments. However Rihm's percussion writing in the Chiffre cycle is entirely characteristic of his use of such instruments in the majority of his scores. He generally employs traditional instruments cast in their usual role of reinforcing texture and dynamic.
Percussion is used in Chiffre II, III, V and VII, that is, in works having more than 12 players. Although they are absent in Chiffre VIII, the instrumental body sounds in the closing bars of the work are probably a suggestion of the role of percussion in the other works of the cycle. From one sketch of the Chiffre II it appears that a percussion part was initially considered as the link between Chiffre II and Chiffre III.
One can also infer from the sketches that Rihm's original conception of the cycle needed much more limited forces -piano with perhaps two or three instruments only -and that Chiffre V was to be the final work where all the instruments used in the cycle would play together. This idea was superseded at an

Metre and Tempo
Although dynamic, or perhaps dramatic, processes operate in the Klangraum through the chordal/motivic and instrumental aspects, these are constrained and controlled by two elements which, for the most part, remain static: metre and tempo.
The default metre (as in many of Rihm's works) for all the Chiffre cycle is four crotchet beats to a bar, and rare exceptions to this either mark a significant structural point, as is the case at Fig. N in Chiffre II (see Table 2), or, are used simply to accommodate a localised shift in the rhythmic structure. The latter usage is the more common, and typical examples are: in Chiffre V, the 4 beat metre is interrupted at bb. 20-3 by 3 bars of 3/4 and one bar of 3/8 which highlights a rare 7:6 division of the beat in the piano, clarinet and bass parts; in Chiffre III a change to 5/4 accommodates the whole of a chromatic flourish in bass clarinet and celli, and the 3/8 which occurs four bars later partly accommodates the instrumental flourish and partly articulates cross-beat syncopation. Thus by its very rarity metre change serves to emphasize dramatic tension at the local rather than at the structural level.
Rihm's use of tempo markings is analogous to his treatment of metre. In most of these works there is a controlling tempo, often within the range crotchet = 60 -108. Variations from the control tempo function in much the same way as changes in metre but only very rarely does a tempo change coincide with a change of metre, and then usually to mark out some very specific detail: the final 'cadential' bars of  Table 2).
The slowest tempo used in the cycle is crotchet = 40 and although rare, it can be an important structural marker: it is the tempo which leads into the first repeat of Chiffre [I] within Chiffre II, and it is the control tempo of Chiffre VIII. Finally, except for Chiffre [I] and Chiffre VII each work returns to its opening tempo, even Chiffre III, which begins at crotchet = 88 and ends crotchet = 80 but has an accelerando in the last three bars. As with metre these relatively rare tempo changes have a local rather than a structural effect.

KLANGZEICHEN (Soundsigns)
In the Chiffre series, as indeed in all Rihm's music, fundamental components are the Klangzeichen -'Soundsigns'. While there might be a number of ways of interpreting what Rihm means by this word, undoubtedly the most significant is as a means of defining articulation: it is not just the pitch or the chord which is important in the musical context but exactly how it is to be played. The individuality of a sound and the juxtaposition of discrete sounds (i.e Einzelereignis = moment of sound) determine the direction and character of each work. Rihm's search for the 'flavour of the special sound' 24 of a musical event is obsessive.
Virtually every pitch has some kind of articulation specified, and in a sense the music moves from one articulation to the next, with varied articulation superseding pitch imitation between parts as the primary musical feature at some points. For the purposes of this discussion I include within the term 'articulation' those dynamics which are applied to an individual pitch to affect the way it is played (Rihm does use sectional dynamics, but not as a common practice). This trait might well be a throwback to his serial period but in these works there is no sense in which articulation or dynamics are hierarchically ordered. This short example illustrates a number of inter-related elements. The detailed articulation directions serve to draw attention to each of the musical entities in different ways. The piano chord at b. 43, which is a repoled chord from Chiffre II (in that it is now placed in new context), is given two dynamics, the louder of the two for the left hand dyads which are also accented to draw the ear to the perfect fourths which are counterpointing and interacting with the tritones between the clarinet and cello. 25 On the other hand, the first chord in b. 44, which has come from Chiffre III, is marked pp matching the dynamic level of the clarinet and cello, possibly to achieve continuity, but the repeat of the chord from b. 43 is given a new dynamic with accents retained in the left hand. The accenting of the F# 1 in cello in b. 43 provides a temporary focus pitch confirmed by its transfer to the piano left hand in b. 44 (and also in the move from the first chord of the bar right hand into the second where it is already present as enharmonic Gb). Finally, the clarinet and cello parts have staccato markings and additional dynamics throughout which ensure that no pitch lacks 'purpose' within the texture. A sound sign of prime importance in Rihm's music is silence onto which he ascribes many layers of meaning (see note 22) and it serves to throw the pitch collections into relief. Silences therefore have an active textural and articulative function. The concept of an 'active' 25 The role of fourths and fifths is explored in more detail by Wolfgang Hofer in Triobeschreibung: Rihm, booklet in Wolfgang Rihm, Trios 1969-1994, CD, Kairos 0012092KAI 1999/2000: 'Chiffre IV is built on fourth and fifth stratifications'. However in the German there is more which has not been translated in the French or English versions (pp. 6, 16 and 23 of the CD programme booklet): Tritonusreibungen bewirken vagierende Kunst des Übergangs zwischen dunklem Grund und schwebenden Stimmen, Echoschatten, Ausklangperioden (Tritonal friction induces a floating art of transitions between the dark ground and suspended voices, echo-shadows, section envelopes). I am grateful to Ulrich Mosch for pointing out that vagierende is probably a reference to Schoenberg's idea of the vagierende Akkord ('indeterminate (or, as Phipps (1985 argues, 'vagrant') chord' first introduced in Schoenberg's Harmonielehre, 1 st ed., p.270), while Kunst des Übergangs probably refers to the German subtitle to Adorno's biography of Berg. Ausklangperioden is particularly difficult to render into English, as indeed is the whole sentence, hence I imagine the reason for its omission from the CD translation. I have therefore chosen to keep the translation quite literal.

silence -silence as signifier -is demonstrated above all in Chiffre II which was originally subtitled
Silence to be Beaten 26 and therefore probably not initially conceived as being related to Chiffre [I]. In his programme note the composer acknowledges that the title is a conscious reference to Varėse: 'Inscription

on many general pauses in Varėse scores (Inskription bei vielen Generalpausen in Varese-Partituren).' 27
Rihm is clearly aware of the alternative reading of such a title, that is, silence that must be 'defeated', and so he describes the silences as 'tormented, tortured (gepeinigt, gequält).' By extension, the substantive repeat of Chiffre [I] within Chiffre II is an element of the musical discourse which has also to 'be beaten'.
Chiffre II becomes the frame which both encloses the earlier work and also comments upon it. The extended silence in Chiffre II therefore acts as the antithesis of the extensive quotation from Chiffre [I].

'EIN KLANG … FORMT SEINEN VORGÄNGER WILKLICH UM' 28 ['A sound… really transforms its predecessor']
Much has been written, not least by the composer himself, about his processes of 'spontaneous' composition whereby manipulation of musical ideas does not take place within a pre-planned framework through which the musical argument is articulated. Form and structure are rarely planned in advance: they emerge out of the progress of the musical discourse as it develops moment by moment. However in relation to this concept Rihm diverges from his teacher Stockhausen in the way in which he considers that a sound 'transforms its predecessor' through frequent recapitulatory or repoled moments which build relationships with what has come before, while at the same time providing the basis for what is to come.
Whether Rihm intends his listeners to perceive such structural elements is not clear but from his writings it is likely that he would prefer multiple interpretations such as suggested by Nattiez's comment that 'the listener will project configurations upon the work that do not always coincide with the poietic process.' 29 Although Rihm asserts that a 'sound '[…]' transforms its predecessor' this can only be true in the sense that we have a memory of the previous sound and, as listeners, our memory of what we heard must be shaped by what we presently hear. What Rihm seems to be suggesting here is that he is deliberately 26 The sketches show that Rihm began a work called Silence to be beaten in 1981 but at that stage only wrote five bars and stopped at the sixth. The orchestration is virtually the same as the final version of Chiffre II and the chords (extended Lenz), clusters, and lower string repeated notes demonstrate a link between Chiffre [I] and II. The sketches are held at the Paul Sacher Institute in Basle and are currently (2006) not catalogued. 27 Rihm, Ausgesprochen, Vol. II, p. 344. There is also another connection with Varėse, by way of Artaud. In a radio introduction to the Chiffre cycle, (held at the Sacher Institute in Basle (in the informal sound archive associated with the Rihm collection)., Rihm refers to Varėse's unfinished work L'Astronome for which Artaud contributed text. 28 'Ein Klang, der einem anderen Klang zeitlich folgt, formt seinen Vorgänger wirklich um (A sound, which temporally follows another sound, really transforms its predecessor) from Mutation (Exkurse), in, Rihm, Ausgesprochen, Vol. I, p. 159. manipulating this memory. Table 1   First new chordal idea based on perfect 5 th , probably derived from 2 (a1), shared between lower strings and piano 2 (a1) 1 96 -103 Tempo 1

-108
Piano figuration related to 2 (a1); anticlimax with triplet rhythm in augmentation leading to silence at b. 108 preceded by rit. to slowest control tempo, crotchet = 40 3 (b) 109 -118 Second new chordal idea shared between all instruments and piano Section 4 4(a) quasidevelopmental

119
-132 Piano has probable reference to repeated pitch A in 1 (a); increased wind activity in semiquavers probably derived from 2 (a2), dominating piano part; instrumental components parallel to piano at 2 (a1) 1 (b) 2 'developmental' recapitulation 133 -141 Piano reasserts Motif 2 in the form first sketched by Rihm (i.e. pitch content as in 1(b) but not layout/texture); followed by Motif 1 Instrumental unison slowly building g#, c 3 , g 1 chord  g 1 ,  Given its location in the sketches, there is potentially also a relationship with Schattenstück but as it is not germane to this discussion I do not intend to pursue this here. Schattenstück was started in 1982, perhaps even as early as late 1981, but was not finished until 1984.

37
A similar connection may be observed in the instrumental layout at this point. The relationship between the piano and other instruments in this opening sequence is neutral -the material is shared, though in Rihm's conception of the interaction between the piano and instruments in the cycle as a whole it is difficult to say which is actually doubling which. However, an accelerando and crescendo over the next three bars (up to Fig. 1) take the new work into a repeat of Chiffre [I] sections 2 (a) and 2 (b), and here it is quite definitely the other instruments which double the piano, adding to the original instrumental texture which is still present. In other words, the doubling has been overlaid upon the earlier work. Rihm does not annotate his sketches it is not possible to say whether any or all of these connections were intended, or just 'spontaneous', which, it must be said, seems highly unlikely. 39 Table 2 presents an overview of the whole of Chiffre II to demonstrate the repoling of Chiffre [I] within it. It is possible to listen to the work without knowing the earlier one, but Chiffre II certainly cannot be interpreted analytically except in relation to Chiffre [I]. As the table below shows, the relationship is not simply just about the repetition of significant sections of the previous work: there is a sense in which the earlier work is struggling to 'regain' its own sectional identity. This is particularly relevant to the position of the piano in Chiffre II. The opposition between the piano and the other instruments builds on the relationship established in the earlier work, and, while it might evoke associations with concerto Rihm's use of the registral extremes of the piano is clearly intended to militate against such associations.
Notwithstanding this, the use of strongly characterized motivic features which are placed in opposition to, or shared between, the piano and the instruments, as well as the deliberate recapitulation of material, both tend to reinforce the traditional stereotypes. It is difficult to view the, albeit brief, unison or octave passages as other than orchestral tutti. The paradox which this creates in the work -the opposition of a new means of expression against older stereotypes -contributes significantly to the work's dramatic tension.

KLANGSCHRIFT (Soundscript)
Many twentieth-century composers develop a meta-language in order to analogize the musical processes they undertake through composition. Rihm's concern with linguistic expression, which is an extension of the extraordinarily detailed articulation instructions in his scores, is evident in his programme notes, and especially those from 1980. These eschew the typical descriptive format in favour of process statements in his meta-language. In short, the programme notes become verbal analogies of the works they purport to describe: isolated words; phrases; points; juxtaposition of random thoughts; key words; words with multiple meanings; unfinished sentences; questions (without answers). The way the music is, Rihm translates into words through, as Nielinger-Vakil puts it in relation to the music, 'the structural juxtaposition of self-contained musical aphorisms '. 41 As an expression of the compositional processes to be found in his The use of a previous work as a generative pole for another in the same cycle is an idea employed subsequently by Rihm in works such as the Vers une Symphonie Flueve (1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000) cycle. 41 So it is possible to map directly the features of Rihm's musical style against the language of his programme notes: single pitches -isolated words short musical phrases -short verbal phrases pitch flourishes -'random' juxtapositions of words dominance of 4 th /5 th intervals -use of key words chords of varying density -words with multiple meanings repetitive rhythms -unfinished sentences silence -questions (without answers)/rhetorical questions