π - Klang der Unendlichkeit

The electronic sound installation is available in stereo format for performance in museums, galleries, at events with electronic music and for open air events as a WAV file. The composition is structurally based entirely on π. It uses both π as a proportion in the large form and the internal structure as well as the sequence of digits itself (up to the decimal place 5,400), whereby the predecimal number 3 takes on a special position and forms the musical basis, so to speak. Consequently, this keynote, the lowest note of the work, sounds with 31.4Hz.
Since π is a natural constant, the composition does not use our Western, artificially equalized tuning system, but the natural overtone series as sound material. The non-cyclical, infinite sequence of digits of π symbolises the nonrepeatable flow of life, the uniqueness of every combination of circumstances, every living being, every experience, every moment. Formulas might be able to approximately describe or explain such relationships, but they can neither convey concepts such as time or infinity nor make them tangible. This is reserved for the arts and, in a different way, for spirituality.
Thus, the work attempts o musically raise the question of the nature of transcendence, even infinity, and aims to lead the listener to their own, non-everyday perception. In this context, there are also references - in the form of modyfied or alienated quotations - to composers of the past whose work is particularly close to this theme, as well as to the traditional Indian Raga Shree and text quotations from Giordano Bruno and Nikolaus von Kues.

Duration: 52'22" (3,141.9 seconds)

www.renehirschfeld.de

"We met Caspar René Hirschfeld previously via his "Music for Piano Solo", which I reviewed in Fanfare 49:1. This is utterly uncompromising music, and Hirschfeld is certainly a deep thinker. Here, he presents a 52-minute electronic piece on the unending number π - Klang der Unendlichkeit (π – sound of infinity). While not unique in taking π as the basis of music (lovers of the Rocketboom podcast will know of what I speak), Hirschfeld's is a particularly profound meditation. The booklet includes an essay by Dr. Jobst Hiezig, "A mathematician's subjective observation on π", Hirschfeld's own essay "How does 3.14159 … sound?" and Korvin Reich's "Cosmic Expanses", all of which explore different aspects of this most mysterious of numbers. The booklet concludes with excerpts from Nikolaus von Kues's "De Coniecturis" and from the mystic Giordano Bruno's "De l'infinito, universe e mondi". […] The speaking voices one hears occasionally are the composer himself, Korvin Reich, and Fabrizio Nuro. Hirschfeld seems to concentrate on a sense of the unending: here is a piece that could never close with a perfect cadence. The point about pi is that it is nonrepetitive. Hirschfeld also points out the relationship of numbers to sound, via Pythagoras. And while the electronics takes us into cosmic realms à la Stockhausen, the musical quotes tend to suddenly "ground" the flow in human, sometimes remembered, experience (as do the voices). The natural overtone series is used as sound material instead of a tempered system, mirroring the actual state of π itself. The piece is an invitation to consider the eternal; it is also, the composer states, an invitation to experience a transcendent state through saturation in music. I did not quite achieve that, but the music is very impressive. Do give this a try: Hirschfeld is a very interesting composer, and everything about this disc, from recording to presentation, is excellent."