Although it was written for my son David and partly played in public by my daughter Akiko, who at that time (1980) was seven years old, Kinderspiel (Child’s Play) is not a pedagogical music or a music intended specially for children either.
Childhood and musical experiences related to it are an essential part of every adults inner world. Moreover, these pieces resulted from the experiences acquired in my last bigger works (“Tanzsuite mit Deutschlandlied” [Dance Suite with German Anthem] and “Salut für Caudwell” [Salute for Caudwell]), i. e. experiences in structural thinking projected on already existing forms and patterns accepted by society like children songs, dance forms and very easy models of fingering technique. To me it seemed important not to shift this change of listening and aesthetic behaviour offered in my pieces into an abstract field but to start with a provocation where the listener (as well as the composer) feels at ease, where he thinks to be safe. The result of all this is something easy to play and easy to understand: a childrens game but aesthetic, without compromises. … here is actually a question of the demonstration using a child’s model rather than of the conjuration of childhood … (Theodor W. Adorno to Walter Benjamin about his composition Der Schatz des Indianer-Joe [The treasure of Joe, the Indian]).
(Helmut Lachenmann, 1982)