The head of a note is its beginning, not the surface of the sound but its entrance/original impulse. A player should suspect/ anticipate when another player is going to play a note and try to hit the entrance of this other note by sort of aiming at it. “For each note, you try to aim, as if you were shooting.” PRESENTIMENT should be performed without any previous agreements: “That is the whole idea – anticipation, not knowledge!”
The exaggeration of body movement while playing increases the players’ ability to anticipate each other’s actions. The duration of the notes is not limited, i.e. the coincidence of tones must not be realised as staccato notes. Only the player with the first entrance does not have to follow the performance instructions, because he cannot aim at anyone else with his note. If one visually suggests and optically marks one’s own entrances, then the probability of coinciding with someone else can be increased. Pickups may be given.
“You really have to help each other a lot in this piece” (playing movements, crescendo up to the next note).
The tempo should not be slow, but rather as fast as possible in order to avoid too many general pauses.
It is decisive to observe the absoluteness of the performance instruction: EACH note!
Postscript to AWAKE: “Kathinka just said something very valuable during the break: You must be awakened by this whole piece, [...] it must be very electrifying.”
It might be necessary to have the players perform in a circle/semi-circle
Tutschku: “It is important that there is no great pause between the pickup gesture and the entrance [...] they should both have a kind of accent.”
[The question of the compatibility of non-arranged presentiment and clear synchronisation with optical signals remains problematic.]
CD 7
Perhaps at least one tone of each player should last longer at about the middle of the synchronous entrances. Otherwise a completely staccato piece would evolve, in which the tones do not develop themselves and give only a homophonic impression. The development at the end is possible by successive layering, the successive entrances of all parts (with crescendo). If hand or head signals are not precise, it gives the impression of an attempted but not realised synchronisation of the entrances. In order to develop interesting, longer sound-mixtures, layers of two or three voices should be realised (production of a polyphonic superimposition over a longer period of time). With isolated, long sounds an internal development must take place, otherwise they seem to be dead, aimless material.
Non-synchronous entrances may be corrected during editing.
CD 10
While giving entrances, it is important to make sure that the upbeat and the downbeat are even, because otherwise the entrances cannot be synchronous.
Each tone must “live”, cannot be “there in time for nothing”, must have a direction and a goal. “There are a thousand parameters!”