Signs, Games and Messages are series for solo instruments and small chamber ensembles. Each of the three notions refers to an essential factor in Kurtág’s music. Signs ties it with the composer’s period of study in Paris as a young man, when he could not compose, merely put graphic signs on the paper. Games links with his nine-volume series for the piano with that title. Messages conveys the very personal content of these works, in that these short pieces are meant to be diary-entries and missives to musicians and friends important to Kurtág.

The collection - like the earlier five series for string instruments - does not form a coherent cycle. The pieces can be played individually or in various orders or mixed with from Signs, Games and Messages written for other instruments.