Like physicists who seek the building blocks of the universe, composers still hunt for the fundamental substance of music. The stakes are similar and staggeringly high: Whoever gets to the core can mold music in new and powerful ways.

For some, the root of music resides in notes like C, E, and G, and their relationship to each other: Arnold Schoenberg's so-called "12-tone system"—the meticulous composer preferred to call it a "Method of Composing with 12 Tones Which Are Related Only with One Another"—trail-blazed a parallel path to the tonal music most of us hear today. John Cage, and before him Edgard Varùse, introduced nonpitched sound into their respective compositions and proved that emotionally moving music could contain masses of sound that submerge or even lack identifiable notes like C, E, and G.

The equally radical Harry Partch offered musicians another route; he insisted on restoring the metaphorical relationship between whole numbers and musical notes. Partch's rediscovery reminds us that many microscopic "notes between the notes" have been part of music for millennia. The late James Tenney, in his obscure but essential 1961 treatise META+HODOS suggested examining what people actually perceive (he called it "clang" after the German word for "sound") regardless of whether any old-school notes are involved.

Other composers search for the core of music in social relationships. Both Charles Mingus and Miles Davis likened putting their respective bands together to an alchemical process, mixing rational calculation with intuition. In the book Musicking, Christopher Small contends that music is a verb and must be approached as a nexus of social and sonic connections among performers and listeners.

Violist and composer Eyvind Kang continues the tradition of composer-as- investigator. Fresh from touring with Laurie Anderson, the Vashon Island–based Cornish grad is returning to his alma mater and convening a nine-piece improvising ensemble to perform his new work Grass.

Inspired by the physicist and mathematician Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716), Kang plans to explore "monadologies" of improvisation. For Leibniz, "monads" (or in this case sounds) and their relationships (the "monadologies") were more than mere particles, but vibrant living things. According to a text supplied by Kang, Grass will be "guided from within the sounds, with respect to the sounds as conscious entities, and informed by new discoveries in acoustics and psychoacoustics."

The all-star lineup—which includes trombonists Stuart Dempster and Julian Priester, trumpeter Cuong Vu, and pianist Cristina ValdĂ©s—attests to Kang's devotion to exploration. Count on quiet sounds, transgenre mashups, and drones that unfurl into sensuous textures. Get a free preview at the open rehearsal earlier in the day, at noon. recommended

Hear Grass Fri Nov 14, PONCHO Concert Hall at Cornish College, 710 E Roy St, 325-6500, 8 pm, $7.50/$15.

Classical, Jazz & Avant Calendar

Thurs 11/13

KIDNAPPING WATER: BOTTLED OPERAS

Exuding an exquisite darkness, the new installation by Byron Au Yong and Randy Moss creates a space where shifts, gradients, and slivers of black bewitch the eye. Recordings mingling traditional operatic voices with water-based percussion hover in each corner; somehow it all gets sucked into the eerily bottomless pool at the center. Closes Fri Nov 21. Jack Straw Productions, 4261 Roosevelt Way NE, 634-0919, Mon–Fri 9 am–5 pm, free.

HANSEL AND GRETEL

Music history has not one but two Engelbert Humperdincks. If you remember the 1970s, the morning-after paean "After the Lovin'" sung by Engelbert Humperdinck (1936–) may still infest your brain. His unrelated predecessor (1854–1921) served as an assistant to Richard Wagner and wrote Hansel and Gretel, one of the big opera hits of the 1920s. Here, singers from Seattle Opera's Young Artist Program sing a portable English adaptation of the elder Humperdinck's fairy-tale opera. Seattle Opera keeps these singers busy: The following night on Fri Nov 14, they animate another adaptation, Tatyana's Letter, a slimmed down version of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at 8 pm, $20. City Hall, 600 Fourth Ave, 684-7171, noon–1 pm, free.

SEATTLE SYMPHONY

Conductor Andreas Delfs fills in for an ailing AndrĂ© Previn (get well soon, Maestro!) to lead the band in Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. In addition, pianist Peter Donohoe sallies through the rambunctious Concerto in F major of George Gershwin. Also Fri Nov 14 and Sat Nov 15 at 8 pm as well as Sun Nov 16 at 2 pm. Benaroya Hall, 200 University St, 215-4747, 7:30 pm, $17–$105.

Fri 11/14

MCCOY TYNER QUARTET

Blazing guitarist Marc Ribot joins this pianist, who is touring behind his strongest disc in recent memory, Guitars (Half Note). Still revered for his tenure with John Coltrane in the early 1960s, Tyner's unmistakable left-hand comping made Coltrane and his legendary quartet more than merely funky; his propulsive groove—an accelerating accumulation of syncopated chords—sliced up time itself. With bassist Gerald Cannon and Eric Kamau Gravatt on drums. Moore Theatre, 1932 Second Ave, 292-2787, 8 pm, $39.50–$54.50.

Sat 11/15

BRAHMS GIRLS

This a cappella group devoted to repertory for women's voices sings music from the Renaissance, German folk songs, and works by Brahms. Also Sun Nov 16 at 3 pm. Queen Anne Christian Church, 1316 Third Ave W, 726-6088, 8 pm, $10–$25.

Mon 11/17

UW CONTEMPORARY GROUP

Students and faculty present works honoring two major musical centennials of 2008, Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992) and the still-thriving Elliott Carter (1908–). A couple pieces get excerpted: Chris Lennard plays three of the Eight Pieces for Four Tympani and pianist Alastair Edmonstone tackles two of Messiaen's formidable Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-JĂ©sus, the "Regard du PĂšre" and "Par lui tout a Ă©tĂ© fait." Cristina ValdĂ©s is the piano soloist in Messiaen's masterpiece for chamber ensemble, the Oiseaux Exotiques ("Exotic Birds"). Derived from transcriptions of birdsong, Messiaen stocked the musical aviary of Oiseaux with hooting wind instruments and swarms of xylophone, woodblock, and other percussion that skitter and swerve; a secret sequel to Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, the Oiseaux could easily have been titled Autumn Ritual. I'm also eager to hear Lee Hancock essay Carter's Piano Sonata, whose fervent, pastoral ripples of notes belie a seething complexity. Meany Theater, UW Campus, 543-4880, 7:30 pm, $10.