| Category: | Musical composition |
| Dated: | On title page: Seattle; Berkeley; San Francisco-Omaha; Mankato-Minneapolis; Madison-Chicago; Ithaca 4/5 - 4/27 - 51 At end: Ithaca, N.Y. - 4.27.51 - 4'40" ...... (?) |
| Instrumentation: | Twelve radios, 24 performers and conductor |
| Duration: | 4' |
| Premiere and performer(s): | May 21 or 102, 1951 in McMillin Theater at Columbia University in New York. Among the performers were Beck and Malina, Remy Charlip, Lou Harrison, Richard Miller, Harold Norse, Richard Stryker and others. John Cage conducted. |
| Other performances: | |
| Dedicated to: | |
| Choreography: | --- |
| Published: | Edition Peters 6718 © 1960 by Henmar Press |
| Manuscript: |
| Two performers are stationed at each radio, one for dialling the radio-stations, the second
performer controlling amplitude and timbre. Durations are written in conventional notation, using notes, placed on a five-line staff. The rhythmic structure of the work is 2-1-3 and is expressed in changing tempi. Cage uses proportional notation where ½ inch equals a quarter note. The notation is not entirely proportional though, since accelerandos and ritardandos are still present in the score. The score gives notations for tuning (controlled by player 1) as well as volume and tone color (controlled by the second player). When one listens to the work, it is obvious that one cannot predict what will be heard, which is exactly what Cage was aiming at with this composition. Apart from that it was a way of abandoning his preferences and dislikes (Cage wasn't very fond of radios). As he puts it himself in For the Birds: "I had a goal, that of erasing all will and the very idea of success". The method of composing is basically the same as used in Music of Changes. Cage used the I-Ching to create charts which refer to superimpositions, tempi, durations, sounds and dynamics. In the sound charts 32 out of 64 fields are silences. In the charts for dynamics, only sixteen produce changes, while the other maintain the previous situation. Similar charts were produced for the the other parameters. Cage gives an extensive description of the composing means in his To Describe the Process of Composition Used in Music of Changes and Imaginary Landscape No.4 (In 'Silence', pp.57-60). Sources: Published score; Paul van Emmerik: Thema's en Variaties; David Revill: The Roaring Silence; Richard Kostelanetz: John Cage: Writer - Previously uncollected pieces; William Fetterman: John Cage's theatre pieces: Notations and performances1; Paul van Emmerik: A Cage Compendium2 |