| Category: | Musical composition |
| Dated: | Seattle, May 1, 1940 |
| Instrumentation: | For records of constant and variable frequency, string piano and percussion (i.e. 4 players). |
| Duration: | |
| Premiere and performer(s): | May 7, 1940 at the Cornish School in Seattle, performed by Xenia Cage, Marie Balagno, Doris Dennison, Imogene Horseley, Margaret Jansen, Helen McDonald and John Cage as conductor. Walter Nelskog, technician. Performed with the choreography, danced by Bonnie Bird, Syvilla Fort, Dorothy Herrmann and Cole Weston |
| Dedicated to: | --- |
| Choreography: | Bonnie Bird |
| Published: | --- |
| Manuscript: | Score (holograph, signed, in ink - 4 p. Folder 50); directions for playing (typescript photocopy - 1 lf. Folder 51) at New York Public Library |
| Cage recorded the work in a radio studio. There were four players, two assistants and a
technician. The composition uses test-tone recordings (two players, changing the turntable-speed between
331/3 and 78 rpm), prepared piano (one player) and
percussion (tam-tam and large Chinese cymbal: one player). The assistants picked up the sounds of the
players (2 players each), and the technician recorded everything. Cage later withdrew the work and used
its title for another work, composed in 1942 and intitially titled
Fourth Construction.
After the first performance of this work Cage renamed it to Imaginary
Landscape no.2 (March) Sources: New York Public Library online catalog; Leta Miller: The Art of Noise - John Cage, Lou Harrison, and the West Coast Percussion Ensemble. In "Michael Saffle (Ed.): Perspectives on American Music"; David W. Patterson (Ed.): John Cage: Music, Philosophy, and Intention (1933-1950); Paul van Emmerik: Thema's en Variaties |