| Category: | Musical composition |
| Dated: | New York, January 12, 1952 |
| Instrumentation: | Score for making a recording on tape, using as material any 42 phonographic records. |
| Duration: | 4' |
| Premiere and performer(s): | January 18, 1952 at Hunter Playhouse, performed with the choreography. |
| Other performances: | * April 22, 1952. Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York. Performed with Erdman choreography * February 5, 1953 at State University Teachers College, New Paltz, NY (with dance: Jean Erdman) * July 7, 1953 at University of Colorado, Boulder, CO (with dance: Jean Erdman) * December 9, 1953 at Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York (with dance: Jean Erdman) |
| Dedicated to: | |
| Choreography: | Portrait of a Lady by Jean Erdman |
| Published: | Edition Peters 6719 © 1961 by Henmar Press |
| Manuscript: | Score (holograph, signed, in ink - 6 p.); Sketch (holograph in pencil - 1 lf.); Notes (typescript - 1 lf.), all in New York Public Library. |
| The piece is a collage of fragments from the records, recorded on tape. In Cage's realization on tape
he mostly used jazz records, partly because the dance had a character that suggested popular music, and
partly to overcome his aversion to jazz. The realization was made with David Tudor and technical assistance of
Bebe and Louis Barron. The score is a block-graph, where each square equals three inches of tape. In total there are eight tracks, made from the 42 selected records. Duration and amplitude are notated but there is no indication of what records (or what kind of music) should be used. The compositional method was using the I-Ching, creating a chart work with a five to five structure. Sources: New York Public Library online catalog; Paul van Emmerik: Thema's en Variaties; Paul van Emmerik: A Cage Compendium; David Revill: The Roaring Silence; Richard Kostelanetz: John Cage: Writer - Previously uncollected pieces; William Fetterman: John Cage's theatre pieces: Notations and performances |