Third Construction



Category: Musical composition
Dated: San Francisco, March-April 1941
Instrumentation: Percussion quartet
Duration: 15'
Premiere and performer(s): May 14, 1941 at the California Club Auditorium in San Francisco, performed by Xenia Cage, Doris Dennison, Lou Harrison and Margaret Jansen, conducted by John Cage.
Dedicated to: 'to Xenia for our anniversary'
Choreography: ---
Published: Edition Peters 6794 © 1970 by Henmar Press
Manuscript: Score (holograph in pencil - 33 p.); Parts (holograph in ink. Contains emendations in various hands - 25 p.) Notes (holograph in black and blue pencil - 1 lf.) all in New York Public Library.


The rhythmic structure is 24 times 24 measures. In each parts the phrase structure follows differrent proportion series, each of them being a rotation of the other: player 4: [8,2,4,5,3,2], player 1: [2,8,2,4,5,3], player 3: [3,2,8,2,4,5] and player 2: [5,3,2,8,2,4].
The instruments used are rattles, drums, tin cans, claves, cowbells, lion's roar, cymbal, ratchet, teponaxtle, quijades, cricket caller and conch shell.