| Category: | Musical composition |
| Dated: | Stony Point [N.Y.], January 14, 1956 |
| Instrumentation: | for a percussionist |
| Duration: | indeterminate |
| Premiere and performer(s): | |
| Dedicated to: | |
| Choreography: | --- |
| Published: | Edition Peters 6778 © 1960 by Henmar Press |
| Manuscript: | Sketches (holograph in pencil - 22 lvs. Folder 211); Sketches (holograph in pencil - 6 lvs. Folder 212); Notes, dated Stony Point, N.Y., July 4, 1960 (typescript with holographic annotations, signed, in ink and in pencil by an unidentified hand - 1 lf. Folder 213); Score (holograph, signed, in ink - 28 p. Folder 957), all in New York Public Library. |
| This is the last work in Cage's '10 000 things' series. Percussion instruments are divided into four groups: metal (M), wood (W), skin (S) and all others (A) e.g. electronics, radios, whistles etc.), represented as 4 lines in a system. The choice of instruments is determined by the performer. The vertical position of the notes indicates volume, the centerline representing a dynamic of mf. There are 3 types of sound events: point events, line events and a mixture of points and lines. The notation is in space where a page equals one minute. It may be performed as a recording or with the use of a recording. The compositional means included chance operations and the use of imperfections in the paper upon which the work was written. The work was previously titled 27'7.614" for a Percussionist. Sources: James Pritchett: The Music of John Cage; Paul van Emmerik: Thema's en Variaties; Richard Kostelanetz: John Cage writer - previously uncollected pieces; New York Public Library online catalog |