Cello and Tuba Machine, composed in 1968 and first performed by the composer with Cornelius Cardew, is the first of John White’s many systemic compositions and perhaps the seminal work within the history of British processive minimalism.

The musical fabric is in slow movement, not alike a massive kinetic sculpture. In contrast with the simple and logical gestures in the cello part, the melodic material of the tuba is determined by the classic mathematical problem “Knight’s tour”, in which the knight may visit each square on a chessboard only once.

Juho Laitinen and Kenneth Ojutkangas perform a three-hour version of the work. The entrance is free, and audience members may come and go as they please.