| Category: | Musical composition |
| Dated: | Chicago, April 1942 |
| Instrumentation: | Percussion quintet (originally: For percussion orchestra (5 players)) |
| Duration: | 7' |
| Premiere and performer(s): | May 7, 1942 at the Holloway Playhouse in the Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco. Performance by Lou Harrison's percussion ensemble. |
| Dedicated to: | Lou Harrison |
| Choreography: | --- |
| Published: | Edition Peters 6721 © 1960 by Henmar Press |
| Manuscript: | Score (holograph - photocopy with holographic annotation in ink - 21 p.); Score (holograph in pencil - 21 p.); Directions to copyist concerning publication (typescript, with manuscript in pencil in an unidentified hand - 1 lf.); Parts (galley proffs with corrections by John Cage in blue pencil - 6+4+5+4+3 p.); Score (galley proofs with corrections by John Cage in blue pencil - 16 p.) all in New York Public Library. |
| The rhythmic structure is 3, 4, 2, 3, 5. The percussion instruments used are combined with an amplified coil of
wire, attached to a phonographic tone arm. The instruments are tin cans, conch shell, ratchet, bass drum, buzzers,
water gong, metal wastebasket and lion's roar. At the premiere the work was titled Fourth Construction. Cage later renamed it to it's current title. This work is unrelated to Cage's earlier and withdrawn Imaginary Landscape No.2 (1940). Sources: Leta Miller: "The Art of Noise" in 'Perspectives on American Music, 1900-1950' (Michael Saffle, editor); Leta Miller: "Cultural Intersections: John Cage in Seattle (1938-1940)" in 'John Cage - Music, Philosophy, and Intention, 1933-1950' (David W.Patterson, editor); New York Public Library online catalog; Paul van Emmerik: Thema's en Variaties; David Revill: The Roaring Silence |