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I can't begin to count every performance, and I'm always the performer. What's been your favourite performance of the music? It's only a four or five minute piece - some people might have a particular moment they enjoy in the piece, and that's their privilege, but I wouldn't single one out myself. I'm most of proud of the fact that it's absolutely strict canon, and on the other hand everybody from Richard Taruskin the musicologist to David Bowie can really get off on it, so everybody seems to get the idea and enjoy it. Is there a musical moment in the piece you're most proud of? We went out into the foggy Belgian night and started clapping at each other, and a lightbulb just went on in my head - what if there's a power failure in a gig, what if everything goes off? And that was it: "This is it, EUREKA!", I got the inspiration to write Clapping music. Every one of us - the percussionists at least - snapped around and watched the clapping women like a hawk.ĭid you have a musical 'EUREKA!' moment where everything fell into place, or did the piece gradually shift and change over time? And we all looked at each other and thought "Are we in Spain? No we're in Brussels… but sure, why not!" So we ended up in this little nightclub restaurant and got some drinks, and some women came out with guitars: it was terrible. It's hilarious actually, myself and my ensemble were performing a concert in Brussels back in the early 70s, and the promoter asked if we'd like to go out and hear some flamenco. How did the idea for the piece come about?