| Category: | Musical composition |
| Dated: | New York, September 1983 |
| Instrumentation: | String Quartet |
| Duration: | ca. 30:15 |
| Premiere and performer(s): | July 1984 at the Internationale Ferienkurse fülr Neue Musik in Darmstadt, Germany. Performance by Kronos Quartet |
| Dedicated to: | to the Kronos Quartet |
| Choreography: | Merce Cunningham: MinEvent with Kronos Quartet (2003) |
| Published: | Edition Peters 66987 © 1983 by Henmar Press |
| Manuscript: | Performance notes (holograph, signed, in black and blue pencil - 5 lvs.. Folder 605); Sketches for 10 Pieces for String Quartet (holograph in ink - 12 lvs. Folder 1036); 4 parts (holograph in ink, with copyist's emendations - 31 p. Folder 1037); 4 parts (galley proofs with holograph and copyist's emendations - 27 p. Folder 1038) all in New York Public Library |
| Four parts without an overall score. Each player rehearses alone. During a performance the players sit far apart at points around the
audience. This work takes it title from Thirty Pieces for Five Orchestras,
Cage says about the work: "Just as that work is a coincidence of chamber orchestras, this is a coincidence of solos". Each solo alternates among 3 kinds of music: tonal, chromatic and microtonal. The work uses proportionally notated time brackets, and is of the early examples of Cage's use of this notational method. Sources: David Revill: The Roaring Silence; Martin Erdmann: Chronologisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen Kompositionen, Schriften, Gespräche, Hörspiele, Bilder, Objekte und Filme. In: Musik-Konzepte Sonderband - John Cage II; Frans van Rossum: Enige bekende feiten over John Cage; David Nicholls (Ed.): The Cambridge Companion to John Cage; New York Public Library online catalog; Richard Kostelanetz: John Cage writer - Previously uncollected pieces; Paul van Emmerik: Thema's en Variaties |