| Category: | Musical composition |
| Dated: | Stony Point, N.Y., May 1956 |
| Instrumentation: | for one to eight performers, each at one radio |
| Duration: | 6' |
| Premiere and performer(s): | May 30, 1956 at the Carl Fisher Hall in New York City. Performance by John Cage, Maro Ajemian, David Tudor, Grete Sultan and the four members of the Juilliard String Quartet |
| Dedicated to: | --- |
| Choreography: | --- |
| Published: | Edition Peters 6783 © 1961 by Henmar Press |
| Manuscript: | 8 parts (typescript, signed, in ink - 10 p. Folder 216) in New York Public Library |
| Radio Music is a work composed using chance operations. The 8 parts indicate between 26 (part E) and
64 (parts C and G) different frequencies between 55 and 156 kHz, notated using numbers (and not using conventional staves, like in
Imaginary Landscape No.4). Lines indicate silences, "expressed by maximum amplitude". The number of
silences varies between parts: from 9 in part D to 27 in part G. Cage mentions that every part is in 4 sections, with or without silences between them, to be programmed by the player(s). The published score consists of a title page and 10 typed leaves containing 8 parts (parts C and G 2 pages each). Sources: Published score; Paul van Emmerik: Thema's en Variaties; David Revill: The Roaring Silence; Richard Kostelanetz: John Cage writer - previously uncollected pieces ; New York Public Library online catalog; Martin Erdmann: Chronologisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen Kompositionen, Schriften, Gespräche, Hörspiele, Bilder, Objekte und Filme (in 'Musik-Konzepte: John Cage II', Ed. Heinz-Klaus Metzger, Rainer Riehn). |