As if by chance

With Quite by Chance/How by Chance the composer Kit Powell, who was born in New Zealand in 1937 and has lived in Switzerland since 1984, presents a kind of summation of his work and the themes that inspire and move him. With its documentary meticulousness and wealth of sometimes very personal insights, the book can be read as a profound artistic biography. Some of it may be little known to the Swiss public, such as Powell's pioneering achievements as a school musician in Christchurch, New Zealand, or his formative collaboration with the New Zealand poet and psychologist Michael Harlow, born in 1937.

However, the core of the book, which is bilingual throughout (English/German), are the descriptions of the works, which are accompanied by wonderful musical examples and present us with an impressive oeuvre in terms of scope, conceptual, genre and instrumental diversity. The works are grouped into eleven chapters dedicated to specific aspects of particular importance to the compositions discussed: Genres, instrumentation, compositional technique, extra-musical influences, texts and their authors, etc. The introductions to the works are richly supplemented by photos, press releases and testimonials from performers and other companions, which means that an outside perspective is always present.

With impressive, refreshing openness, Powell sets out the technical, aesthetic and philosophical foundations and extra-musical references of his work. As a result, his explanations can sometimes seem subjective and, to a certain extent, hermetic. One may not entirely agree with some of the observations, for example when a reference to music history is made in a rather coarse manner, but this will not be held against the author, as he is not conducting a historical discussion, but explaining what has shaped his own work. Rather, the great quality of the book is to provide an unusually deep and virtually undisguised insight into the thinking of a contemporary composer. Even as a collection of ideas and illustration of the complex relationship between musical and non-musical ideas and the multifaceted mediation between the two, the book is highly readable and unique in its kind.

Kit Powell, Quite by Chance, edited by Roger Boltshauser, 169 p., € 30.00, Pfau-Verlag, Saarbrücken 2014, ISBN 978-3-89727-505-8