This title, "quiet game", was partly inspired the notion that the purpose of music is to mend a breach in the world, where sound is without form, without structure, without presence. Sound in this state is very much like the beginning of a chess game - all is potential, nothing has substance. But like the quiet game itself (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5?), the world's oldest recorded opening, surprises can come from the unlikeliest of sources.

Commissioned by Quasar with the assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts, Giuoco Piano was premiered February 6 2006 at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal.