Aleph was commissioned by The London Sinfonietta, and first performed for the Royal Festival in 1974. The work makes great use of the Cimbalom, a tuned-percussion instrument of Hungarian origin, resembling the Harpsicord, but rather than using a keyboard, the stings are struck from above using mallets/beaters. In this small-ensemble piece, two musical groups are established, one of flutes and basses, and the other of a brass trio with the Cimbalom performing a continuo-esque function.
The music itself is constructed from cyphers, including several musical spellings of the word Aleph. The title refers not only to the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, but more significantly to the writings of Jorge Luis Borges.
