| Category: | Musical composition |
| Dated: | New York, July, 1942. Revised October 1942 |
| Instrumentation: | 4 performers: pianist; 2 percussionists on muted gongs, tin cans, electric buzzer and tom-toms; one performers who plays a radio or phonograph; |
| Duration: | 12' |
| Premiere and performer(s): | August 1, 1942 at Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont, performed with the choreography by Merce Cunningham and Jean Erdman |
| Dedicated to: | |
| Choreography: | Merce Cunningham and Jean Erdman: Credo in Us (1942) |
| Published: | Edition Peters 6795 © 1962 by Henmar Press |
| Manuscript: | Score (holograph, signed, in ink - 26 p.); Sketches for score (holograph, signed, in pencil - 41 p.); Directions for publication (typescript - 1 lf.); Score (15 p.); all in New York Public Library |
| The work was composed in the phraseology of the dance by Cunningham and Erdman. For the first time
Cage uses records or radios, incorporating music of other composers in his own works. He suggests music by
Dvorak, Beethoven, Sibelius or Shostakovich. Cage describes the work as a suite with a satirical character. Jean Erdman recalls that for the first performance a 'tack-piano' was used (a piano with tumbtacks inserted onto the felt of the hammers). The pianist mutes the strings at times or plays the piano body (as a percussionist). Sources: New York Public Library online catalog; Paul van Emmerik: Thema's en Variaties; Richard Kostelanetz: John Cage writer - previously uncollected pieces; William Fetterman: John Cage's theatre pieces: Notations and performances; David Revill: The Roaring Silence |