| Category: | Musical composition |
| Dated: | August 1952 |
| Instrumentation: | 3 speakers, piano, dancer, gramophone, radios, film and slideprojectors and paintings. |
| Duration: | 44'25 (during first performance) |
| Premiere and performer(s): | August 1952 at Black Mountain College in North Carolina |
| Dedicated to: | --- |
| Choreography: | Merce Cunningham: [Theater Piece] (1952) |
| Published: | --- |
| Manuscript: | Part for projector (holograph part in pencil - 1 p. - JPB 94-24 folder 172) in New York Public Library. Only this part survived. |
| This is Cage's first prototype for his multimedia 'happenings'. The form scheme for the activities was devised
using chance operations. During the first performance Cage read excerpts from Juilliard Lecture, Merce Cunningham danced,
David Tudor played the piano, Robert Rauschenberg played records and his white painting hung from the rafters. Mary Caroline
Richards, Charles Olsen and two others projected slides and movies.
Source: Paul van Emmerik: Thema met Variaties; Paul van Emmerik: A Cage Compendium; New York Public Library online catalog; William Fetterman: John Cage's theatre pieces: Notations and performances |