Music for Piano 1



Category: Musical composition
Dated: December 1952, NYC
Instrumentation: Piano
Duration: 3'30"
Premiere and performer(s): December 16, 1952 at Brooklyn High School, New York, performed by John Cage, piano
Other performances:
Dedicated to: Jo Anne Melsher
Choreography: 'Paths and Events' by JoAnne Melsher
Merce Cunningham:
Suite for Five in Space and Time / Suite for Five / Suite for Two / Stillness (1956)
Solo Suite in Space and Time (1953)
Minutiae (1954)
Published: Edition Peters 6729 © 1960 by Henmar Press.
Manuscript: Holograph, signed, in ink (6 p.) used for the published score. Holograph, signed, in ink and pencil (7 or 9 p.) with additional timing cues. Both located in New York Public Library


The composition consists of six pages with five systems each. The notes correspond to imperfections on the paper upon which the piece was written.

Sources: New York Public Library online catalog; Richard Kostelanetz: John Cage: Writer - Previously uncollected pieces); David Revill: The Roaring Silence; Paul van Emmerik: A Cage Compendium; C.F.Peters catalog; David Vaughan: Merce Cunningham - Fifty Years