| Category: | Musical composition |
| Dated: | 1985-86 |
| Instrumentation: | for four computer-generated tapes |
| Duration: | 16'49" for each tape. Duration in performance may vary. |
| Premiere and performer(s): | November 21, 1986 at the Herbst Theatre in San Francsicso. Performed by the musicians of the Cunningham Dance Company, together with the choreography |
| Dedicated to: | |
| Choreography: | Merce Cunningham: Points in Space (1986) |
| Published: | --- |
| Manuscript: |
| Commissioned by the British Broadcasting Corporation. This is a composition derived from Cage's Writing through the Essay "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience", which is a series of eighteen computer-generated mesostics. These mesostics are tending toward decreasing lengths. Cage used these recording in other compositions as well "Cage recorded each mesostic, allowing nine seconds for each stanza. The resulting total time lengths for each recitation varied from 20'42" to 36". Cage then expanded or contracted reading times (...) to make each reading the same, chance-determined, length of 16'49"." (from Marc Thorman: Speech and text in compositions by John Cage, 1950-1992). The recordings were made at the Center for Computer Music at Brooklyn College, under the direction of Charles Dodge. In the summer of 1985 Ken Worthy and Frances White completed the resynthesis of Mesostics IV, IX, XV and XVI. These tapes were reworked again, using computer voice resynthesis, resulting in elimination of the vowel sounds from the readings, leaving only the noise-like consonants. In performances of the choreography each musician played a cassette tape of the recording, muting it for various durations, varying between 30" and 2'. Sources: Marc Thorman: Speech and text in compositions by John Cage, 1950-1992; David Vaughan: Merce Cunningham - Fifty Years |