Nocturnal No. 3 was triggered by a piece I heard at Cal Arts (California Institute of the Arts) in the Fall of 1969: Harold Budd's "November Steps" for contrabass and tape -- the tape part consisting of two prerecorded bass parts. The notation was simply a set of directions for the bass player, who had to realize the two channels of the tape as well. I was fascinated by the idea of creating a piece in which each part was an independent event that could be "performed" without listening to the other two voices. That accidental simultaneity played an important part in the aesthetic of the piece. I composed a version of the piece and notated it down in a series of extended cues of various degrees of exactness -- from fairly precise to completely improvised. I wanted to write a piece that could be improvised and yet remain sounding almost the same in some mysterious way.
Nocturnal No. 3 originally was conceived to be played in one of the following three ways: 1. Any 2 of the 3 parts are realized on separate channels of the tape recorder, DAT or CD, the remaining played "live" & simultaneously with the pre-recorded realization. 2. Any one page pre-recorded, the remaining two played "live". In this version the single speaker should be placed between the two pianos. 3. All 3 parts realized live. This is the preferred version -- but not often possible. 4. The piece consists of five events of approximately 30 second duration and the sixth and final of approximately one minute. All six events are in all three of the piano parts. But the order of the events, as well as specific notes and patterns, are varied and appear at different times.