John Cage: Professor, Maestro, Percussionist, Composer by B

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John Cage: Professor, Maestro, Percussionist, Composer BY B. MICHAEL WILLIAMS

hroughout John Cage’s early career, Monica, where he worked as a gardener he returned home, and when I ex- his mother kept scrapbooks to docu- in an auto court in exchange for his rent plained to him that I had waited at his Tment his activities and accomplish- and gave lectures on modern painting door for twelve hours, he agreed to see ments. She preserved photographs, news- and music to local housewives.5 During me. I asked him to play the Schoenberg paper clippings, letters, and concert this period, Cage began studying compo- pieces at the next lecture. He again an- programs in simply bound volumes that sition with pianist Richard Buhlig. Ac- swered, “Certainly not!” So then I she aptly titled “John Cage: Professor, cording to Cage: asked him to teach me composition. He Maestro, Percussionist, Composer.” These replied that he did not teach composi- scrapbooks, now housed in the John Cage The week came when I was to speak tion, but piano, but that he would, nev- Archive at Northwestern University, pro- about Schoenberg. I had learned, some ertheless, agree to do his best. After vide a poignant view of Cage’s early ca- time earlier, Richard Buhlig has been several months of work with him, he reer in music. the first to play Opus 11—Schoenberg’s told me he couldn’t help me anymore, Between 1935 and 1943, Cage com- first three piano pieces—and it sud- and that I should send my composi- posed fifteen works for percussion. Many denly occurred to me that he might be tions to Henry Cowell.6 of these works were written for and per- living in Los Angeles…so I ran to the formed by percussion ensembles orga- telephone book. His name was listed! I Cowell suggested that Cage study com- nized by the composer on the West Coast phoned him, and asked him if he position with Schoenberg, but added that and later in Chicago and New York. The would agree to play Schoenberg’s he should first prepare himself by study- historical significance of Cage’s early pieces for me. He replied: ing with Adolf Weiss, Schoenberg’s first work in percussion and the four composi- “Certainly not!” and hung American pupil.7 Cage moved to New tional procedures found in his percussion up. Next, I wanted York City in the spring of 1933 to music contain the seeds of development somehow to get him to il- study harmony and composition for his later work with chance operations, lustrate my lecture by per- with Weiss. At the same indeterminacy and electronic media. In forming those pieces. So I time, he attended addition, insight into Cage’s philosophy decided to see him person- Cowell’s courses and discussion of his work in experimen- ally so as to avoid having him in contempo- tal music provide more information about abruptly end things by hanging rary music, the man and his music. up on me again. Well, I made the modern John Cage was born in Los Angeles, trip from Santa Monica to Los California in 1912. His earliest experi- Angeles in a great hurry to go to ence with music came through piano les- see him…but when I knocked on sons with his Aunt Phoebe James. Cage his door, there was no answer! recalled, I stayed in front of his house for twelve hours She introduced me to Moskowski and waiting! Finally, what you might call “Piano Music the around midnight, Whole World Loves to Play.” I started taking piano lessons when I was in the fourth grade at school but I became more interested in sight-reading than in running up and down the scales. Be- ing a virtuoso didn’t interest me at all.1

After graduating as class valedictorian from Los Angeles High School in 1928, Cage entered Pomona College in Claremont, California, where he remained for two years.2 In 1930, he left for Europe, where he studied architecture,3 wrote poetry, painted, and first composed music.4 Cage returned to California in the fall of 1931 and settled in Santa

PERCUSSIVE NOTES 55 AUGUST 1998 harmony, and music of the world’s against that wall.”10 struments and, consequently, began peoples at the New School for Social Re- questioning Schoenberg’s teachings on search.8 Cage studied counterpoint, form In 1936, Cage became acquainted with the structural character of tonality. He and analysis with Schoenberg from 1935 Oscar Fischinger, an abstract film-maker explains: to 1937.9 It was during this time that who engaged the young composer to write Cage’s interest in percussion music and new music for his visual projects. The as- What struck me all the more was the use of noise in musical composition sociation with Fischinger would pro- [Schoenberg’s] insistence on teaching surfaced. Schoenberg had impressed foundly influence Cage’s direction in tonality as structure, as a structural upon his students the importance of the music: means. When you think about it, com- structural function of tonality. Cage re- posing with twelve tones is only a calls a now-famous encounter with the When I was introduced to him, he be- “method.” But I found the obligation to Austrian composer: gan to talk with me about the spirit continually submit to that theory to be which is inside each of the objects in exaggeratedly constraining…I only After I had been studying music with this world. So, he told me, all we need truly detached myself from him for two years, Schoenberg said, “In to do to liberate that spirit is to brush Schoenberg’s teachings on the struc- order to write music, you must have a past the object, and to draw forth its tural character of tonality once I began feeling for harmony.” I explained to sound. That’s the idea which led me to to work with percussion. Only then did him that I had no feeling for harmony. percussion.11 I begin to make structures. But struc- He then said that I would always en- ture then became rhythmic; it was no counter an obstacle, that it would be as Fischinger had given Cage the means longer a tonal structure in Schoen- though I came to a wall through which whereby the young composer could over- berg’s sense.12 I could not pass. I said, “In that case I come his lack of feeling for tonality. Cage will devote my life to beating my head began composing music for percussion in- Cage became increasingly interested in the possibility of utilizing noise in musical composition. Peter Yates has suggested that Cage’s percussion music represents an extension of Schoenberg’s philosophy of the emancipation of dissonance: “Cage said that Schoenberg, when he emancipated the dissonance, should have gone farther and emancipated music from its notes.”13 Cage clarified his philosophy in the 1937 statement, “The Future of Music: Credo”:

…whereas, in the past, the point of disagreement has been between dissonance and consonance, it will be, in the immediate future, between noise and so-called musical sounds. The present methods of writing music, principally those which employ harmony and its reference to particular steps in the field of sound, will be inadequate for the composer, who will be faced with the entire field of sound. New methods will be discovered, bearing a definite relation to Schoenberg’s twelve-tone system and present methods of writing percussion music and any other methods which are free from the concept of a fundamental tone. The principle of form will be our only connection with the past…14

During the summer of 1937, while also working as an accompanist at the Dem- onstration School of the University of California at Los Angeles, Cage held the position of instructor in percussion at the

PERCUSSIVE NOTES 56 AUGUST 1998 Virginia Hall Johnson School of Dance in paniment to the dance, the percussion or- In “Imaginary Landscape No. 1,” Cage Beverly Hills.15 In the academic year chestra presented many of the earliest first employed a structure that would 1937 to 1938, he served as accompanist performances of experimental works for accommodate both noise and so-called in the Santa Monica public schools. Also, percussion. On December 9, 1938, at the musical sound. He began with a pre-com- during the spring semester of 1938, Cage Cornish School in Seattle, Cage pre- positional time frame in which four sec- and his aunt, Phoebe James, taught an sented a concert of percussion music, the tions of three-times-five measures extension course at UCLA entitled, “Mu- first complete concert of its kind in appear. Each fifteen-measure section is sical Accompaniments for Rhythmic Ex- America.21 separated by interludes of one, two and pression.”16 Cage remained in Seattle for two then three measures. The work concludes Cage moved to Seattle in late 1938 to years, during which time his percussion with a four-measure coda. By construct- join the faculty at the Cornish School. group presented several successful con- ing first the time frame, then filling it The time he had spent in California in certs. In addition to Cage’s own composi- with musical events (both pitched and 1935 through 1937 had yielded two com- tions, the ensemble performed works by non-pitched), Cage began to realize the positions for percussion: the “Quartet” William Russell, Henry Cowell, Lou ideas of non-discrimination between (1935) and “Trio” (1936), each based on Harrison, Johanna Beyer and others. It noise and tonality he had predicted in his fixed rhythmic patterns for unspecified should be emphasized that the players in 1937 statement, “The Future of Music: instruments. Cage’s compositional output Cage’s percussion group were not for- Credo.” for percussion and his continued interest mally trained percussionists; neither was Cage extended his rhythmic structure in the medium increased dramatically in Cage himself. Cage explained: “We could in “First Construction (In Metal)” for per- the years following his move to Seattle. do anything in the way of counting, but cussion sextet. This work consists of six- Cage chose to move to Seattle in part be- we couldn’t roll. So, some of the pieces, teen large sections (the macrostructure), cause of a large collection of percussion like those sent to use by Chavez, we were each of which comprises sixteen mea- instruments he found in a closet at the unable to play.” Cage also pointed out sures based on the durational propor- Cornish School.17 The instruments had that while the early percussion perfor- tions 4:3:2:3:4 (the microstructure). A been left there by a German dancer who mances were well received by the dance similar structural process was followed had used them to accompany his choreog- community, there was no interest among in “Second Construction,” which also em- raphy.18 Cage used these instruments as trained percussionists.22 ploys a rhythmic structure of sixteen the foundation for his own collection of During 1939 and 1940, Cage expanded times sixteen measures. The technique of percussion instruments, which would his compositional output for percussion. fashioning a rhythmic structure to be eventually number over three hundred.19 “Imaginary Landscape No. 1,” for phono- filled with musical events became known With his newly-found collection of in- graph records of constant and variable as the “square-root” formula. Cage would struments, Cage organized a percussion frequency, large Chinese cymbal, and rely on the “square-root” formula of orchestra comprised of faculty members, string piano (a term borrowed from rhythmic structuring in his composition students and dancers. Cage’s wife, Xenia, Henry Cowell denoting an instrument over the following twelve years.23 and dancer Merce Cunningham were played from its interior) is considered to Cage taught at Mills College during among those who played in the en- be among the first compositions of elec- the summer session of 1940. He, along semble.20 In addition to providing accom- tronic music. with Lou Harrison, served as instructor in a dance accompaniment course that dealt with percussion, techniques and problems of accompaniment, and composition of dance.24 On July 18, 1940, Cage, Harrison and Russell presented a concert of percussion music, including three premiere performances: “Chicago Sketches” by Russell, “Canticle” by Harrison, and “Suite” by Jose Ardevol.25 Additional performances included “Pulse” by Cowell, “Second Construction” by Cage and “Ritmicas V and VI” by Roldan.26 The performance received a fa- vorable, though light-hearted, review in Time magazine:

With ordered gusto they banged, rattled, beat, blew, stomped, and rang their way through Henry Cowell’s “Pulse,” John Cage’s “Second Con- struction,” William Russell’s “Chicago Sketches,” Lou Harrison’s “Canticle,” Amadeo Roldan’s “Ritmicas V and VI.”

PERCUSSIVE NOTES 57 AUGUST 1998 Antheil and Edgar Varèse were at work, and I suppose we can go through it again.34

On March 18, 1942, Cage’s percussion ensemble performed for the first time on a mixed program shared with the Univer- sity of Chicago Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Frederick Stock and Charles Buckley. The program featured the music of Holst, Beethoven, Bach, Saint-Saëns and Dvorák. Within the program were interspersed two selections of Cage’s ensemble: Lou Harrison’s “Can- ticle” and Will Russell’s “Three Dance Movements.” Again, Cage’s performance received a number of public reactions. Most critics reported on the novelty of a percussion When they had finished, the audience cording to Cage: “When I applied to the orchestra that used such unconventional gave percussive approval.27 W.P.A., they put me not in the music de- “instruments” as flowerpots, automobile partment, but in the recreation depart- brake drums, thundersheets and beer Rather than return to Seattle in the ment. They didn’t consider my work as bottles. Cage explained that, although fall of 1940, Cage elected to remain at music.”31 In the fall of 1941, Cage moved there was some amount of attention Mills College in order to establish a re- to Chicago to join the faculty of the given the ensemble’s work in Chicago, it search laboratory of percussion and elec- School of Design. At this institution of re- never ventured beyond the aspect of nov- trical instruments.28 Cage’s work at Mills lated arts, Cage taught a class in impro- elty. He said: “No one really took my mu- was favorably received by columnist Pe- visation and “sound experiments.”32 He sic seriously. I think they much preferred ter Yates, who, in March, 1941, wrote: also established a percussion ensemble the Dvorák.”35 that performed several concerts worthy of By December of 1942, Cage had moved So today in the midst of us in Califor- note. to New York, where he continued to work nia is being written a new technologi- Cage’s first percussion concert in Chi- with the dance and with music for per- cal and meaningful chapter in the his- cago was presented March 1, 1942, under cussion ensemble. One of his most no- tory of the creative organization of the auspices of the Arts Club of Chicago. table performances was presented at the sound, out of which comes music.29 The program received much advance Museum of Modern Art on February 7, publicity, as evidenced by the unusual 1943, under the auspices of the League of While at Mills, in the spring and sum- number of newspaper articles and col- Composers.36 The program included mer of 1941, Cage continued to concen- umns heralding the event. The program Cage’s “Construction in Metal,” trate on music for the dance. He and Lou included William Russell’s “March Suite” “Amores,” and “Imaginary Landscape No. Harrison accompanied the Marian Van and “Three Dance Movements,” Lou 3,” as well as works by Lou Harrison, Tuyl Dance Company in a concert for per- Harrison’s “Counterdance in the Spring” Henry Cowell, Jose Ardevol and Amadeo cussion and dance presented at Mills on and “Canticle,” and Cage’s “Construction Roldan. The Museum of Modern Art per- July 26, 1941. Although Cage’s music at in Metal” and “Imaginary Landscape No. formance received immediate notoriety this time was enthusiastically received by 3.” The concert received much public at- among critics and established Cage as a the dance community, music critics con- tention, both in Chicago and elsewhere. leading exponent of experimental music. tinued to take it lightly. A program of per- An unidentified New York critic began Although initially criticized as unmusical cussion music by Cage and Lou Harrison, his article in the following manner: “For by a number of music journalists, many presented May 14, 1941, was announced the first time in the history of the Arts of the works presented by Cage’s en- by the San Francisco Chronicle in the fol- Club of Chicago, a beer bottle was broken semble in 1943 remain staples of the per- lowing manner: “…the orchestra will be in its auditorium last night and called cussion repertory today. composed of drums, gongs, bell, brake music.”33 The critic was referring to the Soon after the concert at the Museum drums, and sheet metal and all selections last of William Russell’s “Three Dance of Modern Art, Cage began to move away will be original compositions of Cage and Movements,” which requires the player to from percussion in order to focus on his Harrison… You’d think they could at break a glass bottle into a metal wash- works for prepared piano. Because of lo- least play ‘Old Man River,’ ho ho.”30 tub. Cecil Smith, of the Chicago Tribune, gistical problems with instruments and Further evidence of Cage’s struggle for gave this summary: rehearsal space in New York City, Cage recognition as a bona fide composer and eventually disbanded his percussion en- musician appeared in the summer of Of the final artistic result, I can only semble and donated his extensive collec- 1941, when he applied for a position with say that we went thru [sic] all this tion of instruments to Paul Price, then the Works Progress Administration. Ac- once before in the 1920s, when George percussion instructor at the University of

PERCUSSIVE NOTES 58 AUGUST 1998 Illinois.37 and percussion duo; “The Wonderful dure is based on a given number of mea- Between 1940 and 1943, Cage contin- Widow of Eighteen Springs” (1942) for sures having a square root, so that the ued to employ the compositional tech- voice and closed piano; “She is Asleep” large structural divisions (the macro- niques he had developed in his “First (1943) for voice, prepared piano, and structure) have the same relationship Construction (In Metal)” and “Imaginary quartet of twelve tom-toms; and with the whole that the small structural Landscape No. 1,” both composed in “Amores” (1943) for prepared piano and divisions (the microstructure) have 1939. The “Construction” series eventu- percussion trio. Cage did not write an- within a unit of it. The majority of Cage’s ally numbered three, and was based ex- other work for percussion alone until percussion works employ this procedure clusively on the “square-root” formula. 1956, when he composed a solo work en- in some form. The “Imaginary Landscape” series, which titled “27' 10.554” for a Percussionist.” In two works composed in 1943 (“She eventually included five works, continued Cage utilized four different composi- is Asleep” and movement II of “Amores”), to use elements of rhythmic structuring, tional procedures in the fifteen works for Cage utilized a compositional procedure but began to move toward indeterminacy percussion composed between 1935 and known as “icti-controls,” in which he pre- after the third work in the series. Each of 1943. The earliest percussion pieces determined the number of attacks (or the works entitled “Imaginary Land- (“Quartet,” “Trio” and movement III of “icti”) per player within a given phrase- scape” employed some type of electronic “Amores”) consist of fixed rhythmic pat- length. This procedure was applied devices in addition to percussion instru- terns that are continually recycled, ap- within a structure of phrase lengths simi- ments. pearing in various locations within a lar to that employed in the “square-root” Other works from this time period in- given measure (or unit of time) through- formula. clude “Living Room Music” (1940) for un- out the work. The patterns, or motives, Three works involving either dance or specified instruments; “Double Music” remain static and do not undergo any de- voice (“Credo In US,” “Forever and (1941) for percussion quartet, written in velopmental manipulation other than Sunsmell” and “The Wonderful Widow of collaboration with Lou Harrison; “Credo placement within a given unit of time. Eighteen Springs,” all composed in 1942) In US” (1942) for percussion quartet with The “square-root” formula provided a employ a more freely-structured composi- electric devices, written for dancers structural framework, based on duration, tional style based on the framework of Merce Cunningham and Jean Erdman; within which motives or silences could the dance or vocal line. These works uti- “Forever and Sunsmell” (1942) for voice occur. Each work employing this proce- lize the contraposition of periodic and

PERCUSSIVE NOTES 59 AUGUST 1998 aperiodic rhythms. “square-root” formula. Cage has said that tion to ordinary orchestra bells and Cage has said that his goal in composi- he derived his use of “icti-controls” from Cowell’s “string piano”—“sounds them- tion is to allow sounds to be themselves, Lou Harrison, who employed the proce- selves,” Cage has said, “pure and simple.” unhampered by the stringent laws of har- dure in several works prior to 1943. Immediately following the early works mony and tonality. Although his early Cage’s work in percussion certainly for percussion, Cage concentrated on percussion music is often highly struc- has precedents in the music of earlier compositions for prepared piano and tured and organized (as in those composi- composers, such as Varèse, and in artistic later experimented with chance operations using “icti-controls”), it is open to movements such as Dadaism and Futur- tions, indeterminacy, and both live and any sound that might be placed within ism, but direct influences are difficult to recorded electronic music. The early com- such a structure. Hence, Cage was able discern. In an article he wrote in 1959 positions for percussion, while seemingly to explore a myriad of percussive sounds entitled “The History of Experimental far-removed from Cage’s later musical di- in his music. Often, a work explores a Music in the United States,” Cage ad- rections, contain the seeds of develop- particular type of sound such as that pro- dressed the notion of influences by quot- ment for many of his most controversial duced by metal instruments (“First Con- ing painter Willem de Kooning: “The past processes of composition. The prepared struction” and “Double Music,” for does not influence me; I influence it.”38 piano was invented as an extension of example), or electronics (in “Credo In US” Cage once asked a question of Varèse Cage’s work with percussion instru- and the “Imaginary Landscapes”). In concerning the latter composer’s views on ments. Not only did the instrument itself “Living Room Music,” he allowed the per- the future of music. “His answer,” Cage reproduce the sounds of a percussion en- former to choose the instruments to be said, “was that neither the past nor the semble, but the compositions for pre- played from among items found in an or- future interested him; that his concern pared piano contained the same type of dinary living room. In “Quartet,” he was with the present.”39 Cage is equally rhythmic structures found in the works made no specification at all as to the enigmatic concerning influences on his for percussion. sound sources (the title reads: “For per- own music. Cage’s work with chance operations cussion: no instruments specified”), leav- It is a prevalent assumption that seems a natural outgrowth of the pre- ing the performers absolute freedom of Cage’s early percussion music was compositional procedures utilized in the choice. greatly influenced by non-Western music. early works for percussion. William Cage collaborated with Lou Harrison, The sounds of his prepared piano have Brooks has suggested that, for Cage, the Henry Cowell and others in his search for been compared to those of the Balinese use of chance was simply another way of new percussive sounds. Many of his in- gamelan, and indeed, they are strikingly extending his determination to accept re- struments are of non-Western origin, re- similar. Cage has accumulated, and em- fused elements, much in the same way flecting the influence of both Harrison ployed in his music, instruments from that the rhythmic structures in his early and Cowell, who also experimented with many different world cultures. It has works provided a means of acceptance for such instruments. In addition to sharing been suggested that his rhythmic struc- noise.42 Cage himself has said that varia- ideas on sound materials, the composers tures are akin to the tala found in Indian tions in the sounds of percussion instru- also influenced one another in their com- music.40 ments and the effects of preparations on positional procedures. Cowell’s “Ostinato It has already been established that pianos prepared him for the renunciation Pianissimo” (1934) uses fixed rhythmic Cage had been exposed to non-Western of intention.43 patterns in a manner similar to that em- music through his association with Cage’s work with indeterminacy can ployed by Cage in his “Quartet” (1935) Henry Cowell, yet Cage himself denied likewise be traced, in part, to his early and “Trio” (1936). In “Pulse” (1939), any direct influences on his work. “As I work in percussion. The use of unspeci- Cowell employed a structure consisting of mentioned, I attended some of Henry fied percussion instruments in “Quartet,” twenty-five segments of five measures Cowell’s classes in New York where I his first effort in that medium, is among each, a procedure similar to Cage’s heard some music of that type,” he said. the earliest examples of indeterminacy in “If there were any influences, I was not Cage’s work. The employment of a radio conscious of them; anyway, at that time I in “Credo In US” opened the composition had not seriously studied the theories of to indeterminate sounds, as they were to Indian or Indonesian music.”41 intended sounds. “4’33",” a totally inde- Cage was interested in sounds them- terminate composition, could be viewed selves. Through his association with col- quite simply as an “empty” rhythmic leagues such as Cowell and Harrison, structure. who were quite familiar with music of Cage’s later work in electronic music non-Western cultures, Cage became ac- had its origins in the “Imaginary Land- quainted with the sounds associated with scapes” for percussion and electronic de- such cultures, and he freely employed vices. The frequency recordings used in those sounds in his music. In “First Con- these works were precursors to Cage’s struction (In Metal),” for example, he work with magnetic tape in the 1950s used muted gongs, oxen bells and Japa- and 1960s. The amplified coil of wire and nese temple gongs, but he also employed the electric buzzer employed in the such “found” instruments as automobile “Landscapes” prefigured the amplified brake drums and thundersheets, in addi- sounds used in later works such as “Car-

PERCUSSIVE NOTES 60 AUGUST 1998 tridge Music” and “Child of Tree.” (New York: Praeger, 1970), 53. Vol. II, J. C. A. The initial idea that prompted John 11Cage, For the Birds, 73. 33Newspaper article, “They Break Beer Cage to write music for percussion in- 12Ibid, 72-73. Bottles Now to Make Music in Chicago,” struments was, quite simply, to make 13Kostelanetz, Cage, 59. New York World-Telegram, 2 March 1942, available to music any sound that could 14Cage, Silence, 3–6. in notebook, John Cage Professor Mae- be heard, whether or not that sound was 15Brochure, “Percussion Course by stro Percussionist Composer, Vol. II, considered “musical.” It was this idea John Cage,” 27 June–30 July, 1937, at J. C. A. that eventually led Cage beyond percus- Virginia Hall Studio of Dance, Beverly 34Cecil Smith, newspaper article, Chi- sion and into the realm of new musical Hills, California, in notebook, John Cage cago Daily Tribune, 2 March, 1942, in resources: the prepared piano, chance op- Professor Maestro Percussionist Com- notebook, John Cage Professor Maestro erations, indeterminacy, electronic music poser, Vol. I, John Cage Archive. Percussionist Composer, Vol. II, J. C. A. and “music of contingency.” In the pro- 16Deborah A. Campana, “Form and 35Interview, 6 June, 1988. cess of his own musical evolution, Cage Structure in the Music of John Cage,” 36Program, “Percussion Music Directed influenced the worlds of percussion, mu- Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern Univer- by John Cage,” presented by the League sic and art. Indeed, he revolutionized sity, 1985, 29. of Composers in association with the Mu- twentieth century aesthetics, opening 17John Cage, interview with author, 6 seum of Modern Art, 7 February, 1943; new doors of artistic thought to those June, 1988. “Notes Here and Afield,” New York Times, who followed him. 18Ibid. 31, January, 1943, in notebook, John For Cage, the revolution began with 19Ibid. Cage Professor Maestro Percussionist the acceptance of noise as material for 20Programs of concerts in notebook, Composer, Vol. I, J. C. A. music. It was through his efforts to cre- John Cage Professor Maestro Percussion- 37Interview, 6 June, 1988. ate music that would open to noises that ist Composer, Vol. I, J. C. A. 38Cage, Silence, 67. Cage became interested in percussion, or- 21Press release, “John Cage Percussion 39Ibid. ganized his percussion ensemble, com- Group,” in notebook, John Cage Professor 40Kostelanetz, Conversing with Cage, posed music for the group, and Maestro Percussionist Composer, Vol. I, 191. encouraged other composers to do the J. C. A. 41Cage, For the Birds, 75. same. The results were seminal to the 22Interview, 6 June, 1988. 42William Brooks, “Choice and Change development of percussion literature and 23Paul Griffiths, Cage (London: Oxford in Cage’s Recent Music,” in A John Cage became a vital catalyst in the ongoing University Press, 1981), 8. Reader, edited by Peter Gena and evolution of one of the most imaginative 24Brochure, “Mills College Summer Jonathan Brent (New York: C. F. Peters, minds of the twentieth century. Session,” 1940, in notebook, John Cage 1982), 96. Professor Maestro Percussionist Com- 43Stuart Smith, “Interview with John ENDNOTES poser, Vol. I, J. C. A. Cage,” Percussive Notes, 21 (March, 1Richard Kostelanetz, ed. Conversing 25Program, “Percussion Concert,” Mills 1983), 3. with Cage (New York: Limelight Editions, College, 18 July, 1940, in notebook, John 1988), 2. Cage Professor Maestro Percussionist B. Michael Williams teaches percussion at 2Ellsworth J. Snyder, “Chronological Composer, Vol. I, J. C. A. Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Table of John Cage’s Life” in John Cage: 26Ibid. Carolina, where he Documentary Monographs in Modern Art, 27Magazine article (unsigned), also directs the edited by Richard Kostelanetz (NY: “Fingersnaps and Footstomps,” Time, 29, Winthrop Percussion Praeger, 1970), 36. July, 1940, in notebook, John Cage Pro- Ensemble. He holds 3Kostelanetz, Conversing with Cage, fessor Maestro Percussionist Composer, a B.M. degree from 3–4. Vol. I, J. C. A. Furman University, 4Snyder, “Chronological Table” in John 28Newspaper article (unsigned), Los M.M. from North- Cage, 36. Angeles Times, 1 September, 1940, in western University, 5John Cage, “Indeterminacy” in Si- notebook, John Cage Professor Maestro and Ph.D. from lence: Lectures and Writings Percussionist Composer, Vol. I, J. C. A. Michigan State Uni- (Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 29Peter Yates, “Organized Sound: Notes versity. Williams is 1961), 273. in the History of a New Disagreement active throughout 6John Cage, For the Birds: In Conver- Between Sound and Tone,” California the Carolinas as a performer and clini- sation with Daniel Charles (London: Arts and Architecture 65, 11 (March, cian in both symphonic and world music. Marion Boyers, 1981), 70. 1941), 18. Publications to his credit include “Four 7Ibid. 30Herb Caen, The San Francisco Solos for Frame Drums,” “Three Shona 8Ibid. Chronicle, undated clipping in notebook, Songs” for marimba ensemble, “Recital 9John Cage, “Personal History,” in File John Cage Professor Maestro Percussion- Suite for Djembe” and “Learning Mbira,” 1942, John Cage Archive, Northwestern ist Composer, Vol. II, J. C. A. all published by HoneyRock Publications. University Music Library, Evanston, 31Interview, 6 June, 1988. His doctoral dissertation, The Early Per- Illinois. 32Brochure from School of Design in cussion Music of John Cage, 1935–1943, 10Richard Kostelanetz, ed. John Cage: Chicago, in notebook, John Cage Profes- is available through University Micro- Documentary Monographs in Modern Art. sor Maestro Percussionist Composer, films. PN

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