Karlheinz Stockhausen's cycle of chamber and electronic music, KLANG – die 24 Stunden des Tages (SOUND – The 24 Hours of the Day) was one of several music cycles, both realised and planned, in which the composer sought to capture the passage and meaning of time. Stockhausen's death in 2007 left KLANG with only 21 of its proposed 24 pieces composed. This article draws on Martin Heidegger's concept of time as ‘the horizon for the understanding of being’ as a lens through which to examine the musical content and imagery of KLANG and as a means of understanding the notion of being that Stockhausen conveyed in these compositions written at the end of his life. It will suggest a significant difference in Stockhausen's thinking about the nature of life and being, moving from the cyclic concepts conveyed in the earlier time-focused works such as SIRIUS and LICHT to a more linear notion of being in KLANG. Finally, the article will use this analysis to suggest that, despite Stockhausen's stated intentions to compose two more time-focused cycles after KLANG, he had begun to confront his own mortality, while continuing to believe in the possibility, if not the knowability, of hope beyond death.

This article examines the relationship between orchestration and microtonality in the music of Marc Sabat through a score-based analysis of two recent works, Asking Ocean (2016), for string quartet and large ensemble, and The Luminiferous Aether (2018), for large orchestra. Excerpts from these two compositions are discussed to highlight the challenges of composing for orchestral forces in a musical style that demands a high degree of microtonal pitch precision. Through retuning, alteration, and a sensitivity to the construction, techniques and performance practices of orchestral instruments, Sabat has developed a unique manner of orchestrating that is at once timbrally rich and uncompromising in pitch precision. After a brief introduction to the extended just intonation framework that Sabat employs, his concepts of ‘fixed microtonal pitches’ and ‘tuneable intervals’ are discussed and connected to orchestration in his scores. Drawing upon this analysis, connections are made between the microtonal system with orchestration and musical aesthetics broadly.

Sonic botany is an ongoing project that I have been developing over the past few years. It incorporates natural artefacts: dry leaves, pods, flowers, branches, rocks, bones and other organic findings. These are used as musical instruments that are played on with a scientific/musical tool: tuning forks in various frequencies. The vibration from the tuning forks resonates through the natural artefacts which amplify the vibration and – via sound – reveal the texture, size, material and condition of the organic matter. This process generates new sonic material, new context and new forms of musical composition. The practice developed into several compositions and projects, a performance practice, a notation system and a way of listening. Here I share some of the insights I gained through this process, the tools and the compositional framework.

This article is an introduction to the graphical impetus in the music of Kenneth Hesketh (b. 1968), from around 2012 to the present day, including his recent work, Viae (2020). Through examination of Hesketh's graphical control of a number of musical parameters, the article will demonstrate that the idea of a ‘musical ekphrasis’ can be extended through the incorporation of spatial aspects in determinate music to result in what the author deems a graphical ekphrasis. Whilst in no way exhaustive in its exploration of Hesketh's multi-parametric approach to composition, the article provides an analysis of selected compositional methodologies relating to both composition design and audience communication, situating them alongside other contemporary musical examples and trends.

This article explores Julio Estrada's musical thinking in his early and recent works. Estrada's early works precede the development of his graphication method in the 1980s, and his recent works follow the completion of his opera Murmullos del Páramo in 2006. It is his music of these three decades between 1980 and 2006 that is most widely scrutinised – a music centred on the extensive conception and manifestation of sound as a continuum and aided in the creational process by coloured drawings on graph paper – but this article focuses on lesser-known pieces from the 1970s like Melódica and Solo para uno, as well as recent works such as his opera-in-progress, a major project conceived as a book to be read and imagined, rather than performed. It is hoped that close examination of these pieces will significantly broaden the understanding of Estrada's creative drive and lifelong research, revealing how these works entangle with his better-known developments of the sound continuum and graphication method and share common concerns with work from across his career.

The German composer Michael Maierhof took a curious and unusual path to becoming a professional composer, performer and concert organiser, one that gives him a unique perspective on the German art music scene. This interview with Maierhof took place on 17 January 2020 in Maierhof's apartment in Hamburg, Germany and forms part of my research into the artistic and socio-economic motivations that composers and artistic directors employ when utilizing a conductor. The interview explores his personal history, compositional techniques, and perspective on the course of contemporary musical history before going on to consider his views on conductor's responsibilities and their role in contemporary music.

Although 2020 will mostly be remembered as a period of hiatus for music festivals, a period of relative stability during the summer in Estonia enabled the festival Glasperlenspiel to hold most of its 25th anniversary programme. The strict restrictions on travel and gatherings (limited to 2 people in March) were eased in May when Covid cases in Estonia went under 10 per 100,000. Travel from Finland opened without restrictions on June 15, and the festival organisers knew in May that public events would again be allowed as of July 1. They were cutting it rather close, as until 30 June public events were completely prohibited.