Music Walk



Category: Musical composition
Dated: September 24, 1958; Stockholm, Sweden
Instrumentation: For 1 or more pianists who also play radios and produce auxiliary sounds by singing or other means
Duration: Indeterminate
Premiere and performer(s): October 14, 1959 at the Galerie 22 in Düsseldorf, Germany. It was performed by John Cage, Cornelius Cardew and David Tudor on pianos
Dedicated to: Heinz Klaus Metzger
Choreography: Merce Cunningham: Music Walk with Dancers (1960)
Published: Edition Peters 6739 © 1960 by Henmar Press.
Manuscript: Holograph in ink (10 p.) + 2 transparant plastic sheets in New York Public Library


The score consists of a transparant sheet of plastic with five parallel lines drawn on it, ten unnumbered pages with different amounts of points, several transparant squares with intersecting lines drawn at various angles. The performers, use these materials and follow Cage's instructions. This way every performer creates his or her part using sounds to be produced at various points in and around the piano, on radios, or with the auxiliary instruments (including their own voices).

Sources: New York Public Library online catalog; Paul van Emmerik: Thema's en Variaties; William Fetterman: John Cage's theatre pieces: Notations and performances