Bus 29

Starting point. Eighty seconds taken from bus 29, between the third and fourth minute of an hour-long take. A continuous electric motor; a man's voice — "Bus 29, towards Gare Saint-Lazare"; the stop, the doors; a woman's voice welcoming passengers; the chime, the closing tone, the bus pulling away; a bell.

First codex. The Pitch Codex for Field Material, version 1.0, assigns this fragment a fundamental of C1 and twelve weighted pitch classes. Their spread is 3.75, a high value for field material: here the material proposes something, and departing from it would be a decision rather than an accident.

The chord read. C altered seventh — C1, G♭2, B♭2, E4. Four notes: root, third, altered fifth and seventh. The root is the one the rule returned; the alterations are read in the classes above it. The F, which the rule ranks third, is left out — the chord tightens, and that is a decision.

Second codex. That harmonic structure is the input of the chromatic codex, which assigns each pitch its colour under a stipulated correspondence. The canvas executes this second rule without exception.

What the work is. Two rules instituted between domains that nothing brings together, executed to the end. The gap between what was prescribed and what was painted belongs to the work.