| Category: | Musical composition |
| Dated: | Stony Point [N.Y.], 1958 |
| Instrumentation: | for voice, any range, to be played alone or with any of the parts of the Concert for Piano and Orchestra |
| Duration: | Indeterminate |
| Premiere and performer(s): | Paul van Emmerik mentions May 25, 1958. Other sources mention May 15, 1958, at the Town Hall, New York City, performed by Aline Carmen (The 25-Year Restrospective Concert of the Music of John Cage). This last date seems dubious, since the recording on Wergo does not mention the solo. |
| Dedicated to: | for Arline Carmen |
| Choreography: | --- |
| Published: | Edition Peters 6750 © 1960 by Henmar Press |
| Manuscript: | Sketches (holograph in ink and pencil - 2 lvs. Folder 250); Score (holograph, signed, in ink - 3+2 p. Folder 251), both in New York Public Library |
| The score consists of 2 pages, each with 8 systems. Any amount of material from the solo may be used.
Notes are in 3 sizes, referring to amplitude and/or duration. Cage suggests the use of microtonal alterations of pitches, as
well as the use of noises. Time lenghts and dynamics are free. The text is a collage of German, English and French words. The compositional means included I Ching chance operations and the observation of imperfections in the paper upon which the composition was written. Sources: Paul van Emmerik: Thema's en Variaties; New York Public Library online catalog; Richard Kostelanetz: John Cage writer - previously uncollected pieces; David Revill: The Roaring Silence |