These pieces utilise among other forms Abelian Form, a concept I developed whereby the proportions of a large form are reflected in its constituent parts.

Because of the superficial similarity of Piano Poems to the Lilburn Nine Short Pieces (also for piano) Jack Body arranged to have them performed at a memorial concert in Wellington after the death of Douglas Lilburn.

Description of the Nine Pieces:

1. Abelian form (3 X 3 matrix) with overlaps
2. A mirror piece
3. A chance piece: Four different chords (determined by chance) and their order and the interruptions by the fist rolls were also determined by chance
4. Abelian form (4 X 4 matrix): all sections are four bars long. Subsection Ab is the mirror of subsection Bb, etc
5. Free form
6. Bogen form: A, B, C, C’, B’, A’, where A’ is the augmentation of A, etc
7. Free variations on a short melody
8. Abelian form (3 X 3 matrix): all repetitions are shortened
9. Abelian form (4 X 4 matrix) using fragments from Pieces 1 to 8