A belated response to this post- I just received this forward.

Being the composer of "A Game of Go", I think I can comment somewhat
authoritatively at least to the intent.  Yes, I have set each move of this
Go game to music, a most joyous exercise for me since I am in love with
both music and Go (I am a 3-dan player who has avidly played and studied
Go for about 20 years).

The score for my piece dictates the music for the two pianists, one
representing the black player and one the white, and also a line for a
third performer which shows the actual move number of each move in precise
location with the music that represents that move.  I arrived at the
"setting" for each move by a process of 1) studying the game record
attempting to understand the "feeling" behind each move or sequence of
moves- its aggressive intent, potential threats, lingering aji (the
remaining "taste" of the move), power or scope of the move, etc.  then 2)
improvising at the piano to let the music develope in direct response to
this "feeling", 3) cerebrating (sitting in a chair seemingly staring into
space) on the flow of the music and how it fit (or didn't fit) the flow of
the game, 4) returning to the game and/or the piano to refine the direction
things were going, 5) further cerebration on attempting to sculpt an
architecturally sound musical shape for the piece as a whole, and 6)
arriving at some kind of deicision(s) and then notating them.  I was back
and forth between four different "stations"- the Go board, the piano, a
comfortable chair, and a writing table (of course I now notate all my music
electronically).

As to the success of my endeavors, I cannot vouch for this particular
performance since I was not there (unfortunately the dates did not work out
such that I could have been one of the performers).  The pianists I know
personally and I'm sure made a decent presentation- but the 3rd performer's
coordination of the moves (accomplished by pressing return on a computer
programmed with this game to display each new move consecutively at the
point in time as dictated in my score) may not have been as precise as
I would like.  Or maybe it was fine, but the acoustics and/or placement
of the pianos might not have been such as to accentuate the dialogue.
But I certainly think the dialogue is there, even in the acoustic only
performances (see my Northeastern CD NR242 or a recent release by the piano
team Quattro Mani on Klavier Records, K11106).  There are sections for
example where there are very lively quick exchanges of chords between the
two pianists that give a vital illustration of the tensions between the
opposing players' wills.  If anything, the dialogue aspect of this music
could be critisized as being too obvious.

Anyway, I hope this is of interest- I appreciate your trekking out in the
rain to check this out, and I would welcome any further comments/questions
(I'm not a subscriber of this list- could someone please forward to me any
responses at [log in to unmask]

Thank you.

Haskell Small
pianist, composer, Go player