| Category: | Musical composition |
| Dated: | Seattle, September 1977 |
| Instrumentation: | for 3 players of water-filled conch shells and 1 conch shell player using circular breathing and the sound of fire |
| Duration: | indeterminate |
| Premiere and performer(s): | September 10, 1977 in Seattle with the dance by Merce Cunningham |
| Dedicated to: | |
| Choreography: | Merce Cunningham: Inlets (1977) and Inlets 2 (1983) |
| Published: | Edition Peters 66787 © 1977 by Henmar Press |
| Manuscript: | 2 Scores (holograph, signed, in ink with photocopy in color - 1+1 p. Folder 553); Score (holograph (photocopy) with note in pencil (1 lf. Folder 1010); Score (holograph, signed, in ink - 1 lf. Folder 552), all in New York Public Library |
| The players tip the amplified conch shells (partially filled with water), in order to produce gurgling sounds. The music also includes the
sound of pine cones on fire (live or recorded) and a single tone produced on a conch shell, used as a trumpet. The work was also part of the
Sounday event. It is a composition Cage labeled
with the word "contingency", meaning "improvisation using elements in which there is a discontinuity between cause
and effect". (Cage in an interview with Stuart S. Smith). Pools is a solo derivative of this work. Sources: New York Public Library online catalog; Paul van Emmerik: Thema's en Variaties; David Revill: The Roaring Silence; Richard Kostelanetz: John Cage writer - Previously uncollected pieces; Published score |