| Category: | Musical composition |
| Dated: | 1976 |
| Instrumentation: | Percussion solo, duet, trio or orchestra (of any number of players) |
| Duration: | 8' or multiples |
| Premiere and performer(s): | |
| Dedicated to: | |
| Choreography: | Merce Cunningham: Event for Television (1977) |
| Published: | Edition Peters 66684 © 1976 by Henmar Press. |
| Manuscript: | Realization and sketches (holograph in black, blue and green ink - 13 lv.); 3 Realizations (holograph in black, blue and red ink - 4 p.); Score (holograph in blue and red ink, signed - 1 lf (2 p.)); Sketches (holograph in ink, written on a printed office memo sheet - 1 p.), all in New York Public Library |
| The music contains solely of performance instructions. If Branches is performed as a solo, it
begins with a performance of Child of Tree. The instruments used are amplified pods, cacti and other plant materials such as pod rattles from a poinciana tree, an 'instrument' Cage specifically mentions in the score. The choice of the other instruments is made by the performers, using I-Ching chance operations. The cacti are played by plucking its needles with toothpicks, the sounds being amplified by cartridge-like attachments, constructed by John Fullemann. Branches is basically a series of variations of Child of Tree, strung together on a string of silence. |