About the creation

Soundfigures, twelve cyclic pieces in variation-form for piano, is based on two warring elements: a twelve-tone row from which is drawn material for all twelve pieces, and a cantus firmus which appears in its basic form in the twelfth piece. Common to both these elements is the minor second (the minor ninth) which is dominant in the tone row itself (9-12) as well as in the cantus firmus. Thus, the twelve pieces were formulated, all based on a common tone row, employing a variant of the same relationship of the second and transferring this relationship to the cantus firmus.

The work was awarded first prize at the IMI Competition for Piano Compositions (1966) and was first performed by the Israeli pianist Penina Salzmann at the IMI's fifth anniversary celebration in December 1996.