| Category: | Musical composition |
| Dated: | November 1970 |
| Instrumentation: | One or more speakers with tape ad lib. |
| Duration: | |
| Premiere and performer(s): | March 1971, New York, performed by John Cage, accompanied by 3 tapes. (?) |
| Dedicated to: | |
| Choreography: | --- |
| Published: | Partly in "Synthesis" [Minneapolis], 1970. Complete publication: MUSIK/FILM/DIA/LICHT-Festival, Josef Anton Riedl: Neue Musik, Sondernummer (for the art program of the 1972 Munich Olympic Games), München, 1972. Also published in John Cage: M (without preface) |
| Manuscript: |
| Previous titles: Music of Thoreau and Mueau, which explains the current title. This is a text based on material (referring to sounds, silence and music) from Henry David Thoreau's Journals: using I-Ching chance operations Cage selected sentences, phrases, words syllables and letters from the journals to create this text, written as prose (not as a lecture). It was written for the Minneapolis "Synthesis" magazine. The texts are an attempt to free the English language from syntax. Sources: James Pritchett: The Music of John Cage; Richard Kostelanetz: John Cage (ex)plain(ed); Martin Erdmann: Chronologisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen Kompositionen, Schriften, Gespräche, Hörspiele, Bilder, Objekte und Filme. In: Musik-Konzepte Sonderband - John Cage II; For the Birds - John Cage in conversation with Daniel Charles |