| Category: | Musical composition |
| Dated: | 1969 |
| Instrumentation: | for an unsolicited instrument |
| Duration: | |
| Premiere and performer(s): | |
| Dedicated to: | |
| Choreography: | Merce Cunningham: Tango (1978) (with Cage's Letters to Erik Satie) |
| Published: | --- |
| Manuscript: | No seperate score, but directions for performance on the manuscript of Letter to Erik Satie 2 (1978), located at the John Cage Trust |
|
The performer should produce sounds with a sound source he or she is provided with. By not being able to choose
a familiar sound source, Cage tries to limit the intentional character of improvisation The directions for performance on the manuscript of Letter to Erik Satie 2 read: "Sound Anonymously Received (Any sound, the means for producing which is in your possession, through no solicitations on your part, & without any musical intention, and if given to you, given without your being able to know by whom) John Cage". (words in italics are uncertain) Sources: David Revill: The Roaring Silence; Paul van Emmerik: Thema's en Variaties; Marc Thorman: Speech and Text in Compositions by John Cage, 1950-1992; Zac Bond, personal communication |