Whitney Museum of American Art February 25 - f^ay 2, 1982

"We have eyes as well as ears..." has been using his eyes as well as his the Large Glass share its status as major work. ears for forty-five years of work, and it is his The Glass itself operates as a giant blueprint or audience - alternately delighted, outraged and mechanical model, activated by its changing envi- bewildered - which now finds itself able to see ronment and the viewers who could be said to be and hear more clearly. Always interested in the "performing" it as they look. Interested in mak- visual arts. Cage wavered between devotion to ing a work which was not a work of "art," Duchamp music and to painting, chose the former, but kept resorted to any method at hand, including musical a weather eye on the latter. The rigorous purity composition . 2 Cage, in his turn, borrows images of Mondrian's abstraction attracted his admir- and methods from the visual arts and employs any ation in the 1930s, and in 1948 we find him material at hand to write much of his music. quoting the fresh and pithy statements of Paul As his compositions grew increasingly complex Klee.l The erratic, floating shapes of Calder's and (after 1950) were generally based on chance mobiles and the crystalline structure of Richard operations. Cage's notation changed as a matter Lippold's gold and silver wire sculptures have of course: "Everything came from a musical de- found in him a rapt observer. Among the litany mand, or rather from a notational necessity."-^ of names which appear and reappear in his writ- From the earliest pieces for prepared piano, his ings and interviews, Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, scores have often included handwritten pages of

Robert Rauschenberg , Jasper Johns recur, and he intricate instructions, which in later works such has written thoughtfully about each of these as Water Music fuse with the score to become a

friends and colleagues. Tobey's White Writings , kind of visual poetry. Another cluster of scores

Graves' magic circles, Rauschenberg ' s myriad derives from astromical maps, still another from silkscreened images, Johns' serried or super- chance determinations as to whether flaws in the imposed numbers, could constitute for paper are to be read as notes or silences. In possible worlds of sound as Cage's extraordinary one group of pieces, many of them for magnetic varieties of notation pull his music into the tape. Cage employed transparent sheets of plastic visual field. printed with lines, dots, or small symbols. By Scores have exerted a fascination over non- superimposing these materials, or in some cases musical viewers for centuries. We are grateful by cutting out each symbol in a little square and to Cage and the collection of scores by modern letting them fall at random on a sheet of paper', composers he assembled for the Foundation for each would-be performer arrives at his own score. Contemf)orary Performance Arts (currently housed Cage introduced color into his notations in Aria at Northwestern University and published in part of 1958, and it runs delicately riot in several in his Notations of 1969) for revealing the wild works of the 1970s. profusion of graphic invention in experimental But the visual abundance of scores is custom- music. The increasing interest on the part of arily reserved for performers, and Cage has al- present-day observers in notations of all sorts ways sought to give his listeners something to (dance as well as music) may have to do with our look at. During his long and fruitful collabora- passion for the working drawing. Thomas Eakins' tion with Merce Cunningham, audiences have needed analyses of the angles at which ripples of water to be "omniattentive" : ^ watching the dancers, catch the light now attract as many admirers as listening to sounds and silences, and enjoying do his finished paintings of scullers on the the costumes, sets and lighting designed by a Schuylkill River. Marcel Duchamp's scribbled notes and his fastidious plans and elevations for Photograph by Robert Mahon from John Cage: A Portrait Series , 1981 . , . ^ t distinguished succession of artists. After 1958, formed through color and enlargement into an Cage himself moved with increasing alacrity abundant vocabulary of images for an ongoing se- toward his own version of "theater," which he saw quence of print editions. Determinedly uncon- as providing greater richness and flexibility cerned with self-expression. Cage finds it inter- than music alone, coming closer to his goal of esting to see what will happen as he combines resembling "Nature in her manner of operation."^ straight lines and curves (the latter always ob- Resisting recordings of his music as frozen his- tained by dropping pieces of string on the plate, tory, Cage stressed the spatial properties unique in memory of Duchamp) with the Thoreau drawings to live performance. He has given increasing through chance operations, just as he accepts and attention to the visual components of his compo- enjoys unforeseeable in the perfor- sitions, using projected slides and films, and mance of indeterminate music. Yet his most non- encouraging his audiences to make use of all intentional works are undeniably his own: "Your their faculties. chance is not the same as my chance," as Duchamp Neglecting no faculty of his own. Cage made remarked in another context. his first decisive venture into printmaking in The question of skill arises. Whether using 1969, producing two lithographs and eight plexi- star charts or observing imperfections in a sheet grams in celebration of his friend Duchamp, who of paper to devise a piece of music. Cage per- had died in October of the previous year. Since forms often painstaking and extended labor with that time, and with growing intensity since 1978, patience and discipline, a quality he prizes. he has devoted himself to making prints as he New freedoms do not imply less work. His recent continues to write music and a range of poetry prints are similarly feats of careful observation and prose. In fact the three activities are and precise execution: although chance opera- sometimes inseparable from one another in his tions may dictate that an entire image falls out- work, which seems to please him. One field for side of the printed sheet ( Changes and Disappear- the intersection of creative energies has been ances ) its absence is as specific as its presence provided by Cage's admiration for Henry David would have been. Above all. Cage pays attention. Thoreau, neither artist nor musician, but a pas- The first to sight a mushroom, he also knows its sionate observer of nature. Thoreau's thinking scientific name. Never having attempted etching and writing often surface in Cage's music (the or engraving prior to his first visit to Crown of 1970, for example in which "we con- Point Press, he deliberately explored his lack of nect Satie with Thoreau") and in his lectures. knowledge in Seven Day Diary (Not Knowing) as he Cage discovered Thoreau's Journal through a poet gained in skill friend, Wendell Berry, in 1967, and was delighted Cage has always been interested in the in- by the tiny drawings they included: "When I terpenetration of fields: music, technology, first saw them [as slides, no longer illustrating poetry, mycology, theater, dance, and the visual the text], I realized I was starved for them."^ arts come alive in their encounters in his work These minute records of trees and leaves, hills (itself often taking the form of collaboration and waterfalls, feathers and rabbit tracks, in- with others) . He seeks to make us more aware of terrupt the flowing lines of brown ink in Tho- life itself, in its multiplicity of detail and reau's handwritten journals as a stone or twig infinite possibilities, by letting things be diverts a stream.^ Joyfully adopting printed themselves and operate freely and simultaneously versions of the drawings as a readymade shorthand on our astonished sensibilities. for the natural world. Cage found that they could be played as music - Score (40 Drawings by Tho- Anne d 'Harnoncour reau) and 23 Parts - projected on a screen as Curator of 20th-century Art part of a performance - - or trans- Philadelphia Museum of Art

Notes Acknowledgments

The title is taken from Cage's 1955 article, "Experi- "John C age : Score s and Print s" wa S CO organ ized by Anne mental Music," published in Silence (Middletown, Conn.: d ' Harno ncourt , Cur ator of 20t h-Cen tury Art, Philadel- Wesleyan University Press, 1961), p. 12. phia Mu seum o f Art and Patter son S ims, Assoc iate Cura- l.In "Defense of Satie," a lecture delivered at Black tor , Pe rmanen t Col lection, Wh i tney Mus eum of Amer ican Mountain College in 1948, printed for the first time in Art. C harlot ta Ko tik, Curato r, th e Al bright -Knox Art

Richard Kostelanetz, John Cage (New York: Praeger Pub- Gallery , Buff alo, New York, s ignif ican tly CO ntributed to lishers, 1974) , p. 82. the developme nt of this proje ct. Petr Kotik helped ini- 1 2. Duchamp note published in A ' inf initif (New York: tiate t he pro ject and, as dir ector of the S. E.. Ensem- Cordier & Ekstrom, Inc., 1966). Duchamp's two known ble, wi 11 pre sent at the Whit ney M useu m thre e evenings scores are Musical Erratum of 1913 (Collection of Mme of John Cage music on March 3 1, Ap ril 1 , and April 2, Duchamp) and La Mariee mise a nu par ces eel ibataires, 1982. meme of 1913 (Foundation for Contemporary Performance Thi s exhi bition could not have been realized without Arts; Gift of John Cage). the ass istanc e of Margarete Roeder. Don Gillespie and 3. Quoted in For the Birds: John Cage in Conversation Frank B illack of C.F. Peters Corporation, New York, sole with Daniel Charles (Boston: Marion Boyars, 1981), p. 159. sell ing agent s for Henmar Press Inc., exclusive pub- 4. A word used by Cage in a letter to Michael Zwerin, 1 isher of Joh n Cage's scores, and Don Roberts, head of

1966, reprinted in Kostelanetz, John Cage , p. 167. the Nor thwest ern University Music Library, Evanston,

5. From a statement by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy , often 111 inoi s , wer e invaluable in the selection of scores. referred to by Cage; see "Happy New Ears," in Cage's A Kathan Brown with her associates at Crown Point Press Year From Monday (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan Univer- of Oakl and, C alifornia, provided both impetus for and sity Press, 1967), p. 31. insight into Cage's prints editions since 1978. 6. Quoted by Jane Bell in "John Cage: 'You can have art "Jo hn Cag e: Scores and Prints" will also be shown without even doing it. All you have to do is change at the Albr ig ht-Knox Art Gallery and the Philadelphia your mind,'" Art News , 78, no. 3 (March 1979), p. 64. Museum of Art The bracketed phrase in the text is Cage's clarification to the author. WHITNEY MUSEUM LIBRARY 7. Thoreau's handwritten journals, which Cage has not yet seen, are in the collection of the Pierpont Morgan Li- brary, New York. They were published in printed form (with drawings copied by hand and then introduced into 3 2790 00112 6612 the text) in 1962: The Journal of Henry D. Thoreau , eds. Bradford Torrey and Francis H. Allen, 2 vols. (New Copyright O 1982 York: Dover Publications, Inc.). Whitney Museum of American Art 8. Quoted by Calvin Tomkins, The Bride and the Bachelors 945 Madison Avenue (New York: The Viking Press, 1965), p. 33. New York, New York 10021 Desicjii: Linda Stillraan .

1 page Collection of Jasper Johns tones. Loudness is rela tive to the Works in the Exhibition size of the notes. Tone production is Dimensions are in inches; height Fontana Mix , 1958 never extraordinary. Pe rcussion parts precedes width. For magnetic tape. To be performed in are a graph of the distr ibution in

whole or part, any duration, any number space of the instruments , as various

Scores of the above performers, as a solo, and numerous as possible , chosen by the • Quartet , 1935 chamber ensemble, symphony, concert for performer. The compos it ion means in- For percussion quartet piano and orchestra, aria, etc. volved chance operations together with Ink and pencil on paper, 6 pages, Photostat copy, made by Ozalid process, the placing of transpare nt templates on 5 pages, each 8 1/2 11, 1 page, on clear plastic sheets and paper, the pages of an astronom ical atlas and 4 1/4 X 11 selected pages, each 11 1/2 x 9 inscribing the positions of stars, Margarete Roeder Fine Arts, New York C.F. Peters Corporation, New York Ink on paper, 3 pages, e ach 12 1/2 x 17 1/4

Living Room Music: A Story , 1940 Aria , 1958 Margarete Roeder Fine Ar ts. New York For percussion and speech quartet; For solo voice. To be used alone or

the instruments are those to be with Fontana Mix or any parts of Con- Variations IV , 1963

found in a living room - furniture, cert for Piano and Orchestra . The For any number of players, any sounds books, paper, windows, walls, doors notation represents time horizontally, or combinations of sounds produced by Photostat copies, made by Ozalid pro- pitch vertically, roughly suggested, any means, with or without other acti-

cess, on paper, 4 pages, each rather than accurately described. The vities . 8 1/2 X 11 relation of time and space is free. Photostat copy, made by Ozalid process, C.F. Peters Corporation, New York The vocal lines are drawn in black, on paper, 11 1/4 x 18 1/2 with or without parallel dotted lines, C.F. Peters Corporation, New York The Perilous Night: Table of Prepa - or in one or more of eight colors.

rations , 1944 These differences represent any ten Music for Carillon No. 5 , 1967 For prepared piano singing styles established by the sing- For a 4-octave instrument. The nota- Photostat copy, made by IBM process, er. Black squares are any unmusical tion (treble and bass staves, giving on paper, 11 x 8 1/2 uses of the voice or auxiliary devices. equal space for each of 47 bells, omit- C.F. Peters Corporation, New York The text employs vowels and consonants ting low C# and Eb) is on plywood, the and words from five languages: Arme- grain etc. to suggest what bells are Three Dances: Table of the Prepara - nian, Russian, Italian, French and sounded

tion , 1945 English. All aspects of a performance Ink on wood, 5 double-sided panels with For two prepared pianos (dynamics, etc.) which are not notated ink-numbered tape additions by Jerry Photostat copy, made by IBM process, may be freely determined by the singer. Neff, each 11 1/2 x 6 5/8 on paper, 2 pages, each 11 x 8 1/4 Mechanical printing with hand-coloring Collection of Jerry Neff C.F. Peters Corporation, New York on paper, selected pages, each 16 7/8 X 10 3/4 Song Books: Volumes I and IJ^, 1970 Music for Marcel Duchamp: Table of C.F. Peters Corporation, New York Solos for voice. The solos may be used

Preparations , 1947 by one or more singers. Any number of

For prepared piano Sounds of Venice , 1959 solos in any order and any superimposi- Ink on paper, 11 x 8 1/2 For solo television performance, in- tion may be used. Super imposition is Margarete Roeder Fine Arts, New York volving a large number of properties sometimes possible, since some are not and four single-track tapes songs, but are directives for theatri- Ink and pencil on paper, title page, 3- Study for Seven Haiku , 1951 cal activity (which, on the other hand, For piano solo page score, and sketch, each 8 1/2 x may include voice production). A given Ink on paper, 7 x 27 1/2 11 solo may recur in a given performance. Collection of Jasper Johns Margarete Roeder Fine Arts, New York Specific directions when necessary pre- cede each solo. When such directions

, 1960 Water Music , 1952 Cartridge Music have already been given, they are not For a pianist, using also radio, For amplified "small sounds"; also am- repeated, but reference is simply made whistles, water containers, deck plified piano or cymbal; any number of to them. Each solo belongs to one of of cards players and loudspeakers; part to be four categories: l)song; 2)song using Photostat copies, made by Ozalid prepared from score by performers. (A electronics*; 3) theater; 4) theater us- process, on paper, 10 pages, each cartridge is an ordinary phonograph ing electronics*. Each is relevant or 11 3/8 x 17 7/8 pick-up in which customarily a playing irrelevant to the subject: "We connect C.F. Peters Corporation, New York needle is inserted.) This is a compo- Satie with Thoreau." Given a total sition indeterminate of its perfor- performance time-length, each singer Study for 26'1.1499" for a String mance, and the performance is of ac- may make a program that will fill it. tions which are often indeterminate of Player , 1955 Given two or more singers, each should Ink and pencil on paper, 11 x 8 1/2 themselves. Material is supplied, much make an independent program, not fitted Collection of Jasper Johns of it on transparent plastics, which or related in a predetermined way to enables a performer to determine a pro- anyone else's program. Any resultant gram of actions. These are insertion, 26'1.1499" for a String Player , 1955 silence in a program is not to be feared. Ink and pencil on tracing paper, 6 use and removal of objects from the Simply perform as you had intended to, pages, each 11 x 14 cartridges, manipulation of timbre and before you knew what would happen. Margarete Roeder Fine Arts, New York amplitude dials of the associated am- *Wireless throat microphones permit the plifiers, production of auxiliary amplification and transformation of vo- Concert for Piano and Orchestra, 1957-58 sounds (also electronic). Since with- cal sounds. Contact microphones ampli- To be performed in whole or part, any out amplification, the sounds are too fy non-vocal sounds, e.g. activities on duration, any number of specified or- small to be heard, one performer's a table or typewriter, etc. chestra performers, as a solo, chamber activities interpenetrate radically Photostat copy, made by IBM process, on ensemble, symphony, concert for piano with those of other performers when paper, selected pages, each 8 1/2 x and orchestra, aria, etc. The Concert they concern the use of amplifiers. 10 1/4 for Piano and Orchestra is without a Directions are given for the use of C.F. Peters Corporation, New York master score, but each part is written this material for making a cymbal or in detail in a notation where space is piano duet, a piano trio, etc. WGBH —TV , 1971 relative to time determined by the per- Mechanical printing on paper and photo- For composer and technicians. former and later altered by a conduc- stat copy, made by Ozalid process, Photostat copy, made by Ozalid process, directives and tor. Both specific spe- on clear plastic sheets, selected on paper, 3 pages, each 11 x 11 cific freedoms are given to each play- pages, each 8 7/8 x 12 C.F. Peters Corporation, New York er, including the conductor. Notes are C.F. Peters Corporation, New York of three sizes, referring ambiguously Score (40 Drawings by Thoreau) and 23

to duration or amplitude. As many var- Atlas Eel ipticalis . 1961-62 Parts , 1974 ious uses of the instruments as could Instrumental parts t o be played in For any instruments and/or voices. be discovered were subjected to the whole or part, any d uration, in any Twelve Haiku followed by a recording composing means which involved chance ensemble, chamber or orchestral; with of the dawn at Stony Point, New operations and the observation of im- or without Winter Mu sic ; an electronic York, August 6, 1974. perfections in the paper upon which the version is made poss ible by use of con- Photostat copy of conductor's page, music was written. The pianist's part tact microphones wit h associated am- made by Ozalid process, on paper, is a "book" containing 84 different plifiers and loudspe akers operated by 13 1/2 X 20 kinds of composition, some varieties of an assistant to the conductor. Each C.F. Peters Corporation, New York the same species, others, altogether part is written in s pace equal to a different. The pianist is free to play time at least twice as slow as clock Etudes Australes , 1974-75 any elements of his choice, wholly or time. Arrows indica te 0", 15", 30" For piano solo, based upon tracings of in part and in any sequence. and 45". Space vert ically equals fre- star maps Ink and 6 pencil on paper, pages, each quency. Since equal space is given 1 page, pencil on tracing paper, 7 10 3/4 x 16 3/4 each chromatic tone, notes not having pages, colored pencil on paper, each 5 pages The John Cage Notations Col- conventional acciden tals are micro- 14 X 11 lection, Northwestern University tones. Specific dir ectives and free- Margarete Roeder Fine Arts, New York Music Library, Evanston, Illinois, doms are given regar ding duration of . " .

John at Seventy: express the "nine permanent emotions" of Indian tradi- Cage tion, after reading the work of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy Teaches during the summer at Black Mountain College in Toward a Chronology North Carolina, where he organizes an Erik Satie festi- 1912 val. Meets R. Buckminster Fuller, whose thought will Born September 5 in Los Angeles, the only son of the become increasingly important to him. engineer and inventor John Milton Cage, and his wife 1949 Lucretia Harvey. Receives Guggenheim Fellowship and an award from the 1920-28 American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Takes piano lessons from his aunt Phoebe and Fannie Letters. Travels to Europe, where he meets Pierre Charles Dillon; becomes fascinated with the music of Boulez, with whom he later carries on a lively corre-

Edvard Grieg. spondence . 1928 1950 Graduates from Los Angeles High School; class vale- Meets the pianist David Tudor, with whom he collaborates dictorian. Enters Pomona College, where he remains for on many performances and projects over the following two years; attracted to the writing of Gertrude Stein. years. Together with Tudor and the composers Morton 1930-31 Feldman, Christian Wolff, and (somewhat later) Earle Travels to Europe, spending six months in Paris studying Brown, works to free sounds from memory, taste, and any architecture, and briefly piano with Lazare Levy. Moves fixed relationship to each other. Over the next few on to Biskra, Majorca, Madrid, and Berlin, writing poet- years they make constant experiments and discoveries in ry and painting. Begins to compose music. the field of electronic music. Delivers "Lecture on 1931-34 Nothing" at the Artist's Club started by Robert Mother- Returning to the U.S.A., continues to write, paint, and well in New York. During this period, becomes a friend compose; gives lectures on music and art to housewives. of many of the Abstract Expressionist painters, who Studies composition with pianist Richard Biihlig in Los constitute a sympathetic audience for his music and Angeles and composers Adolph Weiss and Henry Cowell in Cunningham's dance. New York. 1951 1934 Completes Sixteen Dances for Cunningham, for which he Studies counterpoint and analysis with Arnold Schonberg prepares large charts to plot the rhythmic structure of

privately, at the University of Southern California and the music. Meets Robert Rauschenberg , and collaborates

at U.C.L.A. Marries Xenia Andreyevna Kashevaroff. with him on Automobile Tire Print . Wolff introduces

1935-36 Cage to the I Ching (Chinese Book of Changes ) , which Composes chromatic music; increasingly interested in becomes an essential tool for composing much of his percussion music and in rhythmic structure. music and, later, his prints. Over a period of nine 1937-39 months, writes for piano, based en- Moves to Seattle as composer-accompanist for Bonnie tirely on chance operations. Writes Bird's modern dance classes at the Cornish School. No. 4 for twelve radios. Meets Merce Cunningham, then a student of Bonnie Bird, 1952

and the artists Mark Tobey and Morris Graves. Composes Writes Imaginary Landscape No. 5 , his first piece for

and performs percussion music with groups which he orga- magnetic tape. Music for Carillon No. 1 , composed using

' 3 nizes. Collects instruments of all kinds including templates of folded paper, and his celebrated 4 3 , a "junk" objects. Delivers lecture entitled "The Future silent piece in three movements inspired in part by

of Music: Credo" in which he redefines music as "orga- Rauschenberg ' s all-white paintings, one of which hangs nization of sound." In the fall of 1938, to accompany a in his loft. Teaches again at Black Mountain College,

dance by Syvilla Fort, writes Bacchanale , first piece where he organizes an untitled "event" with Cunningham, for "prepared piano" which he invents. Rauschenberg, Tudor, and the poets Charles Olson and 1939 Mary Caroline Richards. This 45-minute event, in which Composes Imaginary Landscape No. 1 using muted piano, each participant simultaneously performs unrelated ac- cymbal, and phonograph records of variable and constant tions, is later seen as a prototype for Happenings in - speeds his first piece to make use of a recording the mid-1960s. During summer also work on Williams Mix , studio for production. a complex piece for tape with a "collage" of a large 1941 number of recorded sounds combined by chance operations. At invitation of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, teaches a class in 1954 experimental music at the Chicago Institute of Design. Moves with friends to a small cooperative community near While there, commissioned by CBS to do score for a radio Stony Point, New York, where he becomes fascinated with program with the poet Kenneth Patchen: The City Wears a the study of mushrooms in particular and nature in gen-

Slouch Hat . eral. Makes a European concert tour with David Tudor 1942 which has a lively effect upon experimental music Moves to New York City in the spring, and writes Credo abroad.

in Us , his first work to accompany a dance by Merce 1955 Cunningham and the beginning of a lifelong collabora- Around this time, meets Jasper Johns. Writing Music for tion. Writes The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs Piano , derived from imperfections in the paper he is for voice (his first use of a text from James Joyce's using. Gives a controversial recital with Cunningham in

Finnegans Wake ) to be accompanied by fingers or knuckles October at the Clarktown High School in New City, New striking a closed grand piano. Meets Marcel Duchamp York. through Max Ernst and Peggy Guggenheim. 1956 1943 Gives occasional classes (through 1960) at the New Concert of his percussion music at the Museum of Modern School for Social Research in New York, where his stu- Art in February begins to establish his reputation as a dents include George Brecht, Al Hansen, Dick Higgins, central figure of the avant-garde. Meets Virgil Thom- Toshi Ichiyanagi, Allan Kaprow, and Jackson MacLow. son, who becomes a friend and supporter of his work. Later developments in Happenings and the Fluxus movement 1944 hence partly attributed to his teaching. Cage becomes closely associated with Cunningham and his 1958 dancers with their first joint recital in 1944, and In May, a retrospective concert of 25 years of Cage's functions as the musical director of the company until music is organized by Johns, Rauschenberg, and Emile de 1966. From the mid-1940s to the present often writes Antonio at Town Hall in New York. Concert for Piano and

music for and performs with Cunningham, and their in- Orchestra , with a piano solo using 84 methods of compo- vention of the independent but cooperative relationship sition, is performed for the first time, with Cunningham of music and dance has a profound effect on otfiers. conducting as a "chronometer of variable speed." A 1945 group of Cage's scores is shown at the Stable Gallery. Separated from Xenia, moves to the Lower East Side. With David Tudor, travels to Europe, teaching a class in Begins to study the philosophy and traditional music of experimental music in Darmstadt, where he meets Nam June India with Gita Sarabhai, and attends lectures on Zen Paik. At Brussels World's Fair, delivers lecture on Buddhism by Dr. Daisetz T. Suzuki at Columbia University indeterminacy, consisting of 30 amusing stories read one

( for two years) each minute. At the invitation of Luciano Berio, spends 1947 four months in Milan, composing Fontana Mix for tape The Ballet Society in New York commissions his score for with the aid of superimposed sheets of transparent plas-

The Seasons , with choreography by Cunningham and sets by tic marked in ink. Wins Italian TV quiz show as mush- Isamu Noguchi. Writes music to accompany Duchamp se- room expert and performs Water Walk and Sounds of

quence in Han Richter's film. Dreams that Money Can Buy . Venice , two short pieces as much theater as music. 1948 1960-61 Completes for prepared piano, to Fellow at Center for Advanced Studies at Wesleyan Uni- , .

versity, Middletown, Connecticut, where he works on

Silence , first anthology of his lectures and writings, published by Wesleyan in 1961. Writes Cartridge Music for phonograph cartridges and contact microphones to pick up small sounds, and uses materials from the score to write other music and texts, including Where are We Going? And What are We Doing? Completes flexible text on Rauschenberg, published in May 1961. Commissioned by the Montreal Festival Society to write a major orches-

tral work. Atlas Eel ipt ical is , composed with astronom- ical charts by means of chance operations. 1962 Co-founder of New York Mycological Society. Travels to Japan on six-week concert tour with David Tudor. 1963 In September, directs first New York performance of Satie's Vexations with 840 repetitions. Writes Varia- tions III and IV, highly indeterminate works for any number of performers. 1964

Writes 26 Statements re Duchamp , and completes Jasper Johns: Stories and Ideas (for Johns' exhibition at the Jewish Museum). New York Philharmonic Orchestra, at the instigation of Leonard Bernstein, performs Atlas Eclip- Concert for Piano and Orchestra, 1957-56

tical is , with mixed results. In April, invited by Uni- versity of Hawaii music department to visit as part of again using star charts. Employs Thoreau's drawings for

an East/West Exchange. Represents West, while Toru musical composition in Score . Contributes Series re Takemitsu represents East. Cage travels with Cunningham Morris Graves to catalogue of the artist's drawings. company on world tour which includes Japan and India. Richard Kostelanetz publishes the anthology, John Cage . 1965 1975 Begins writing intermittent prose work. Diary: How to Exploring ways to encourage improvisation while avoiding Improve the World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse) to self-expression, writes Child of Tree for amplified celebrate the ideas of Buckminster Fuller. Becomes plant materials. Commissioned by Canadian Broadcasting president of the Cunningham Dance Foundation, and direc- Corporation for a work related to the Bicentennial:

tor of the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts. Lecture on the Weather , combining chanted texts derived 1967 from Thoreau with film and recordings of breeze, rain, Composer in residence at University of Cincinnati. Fin- and thunder.

ishes second anthology of writings, . 1976 Introduced to Henry David Thoreau's Journal by the poet Commissioned by Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Wendell Berry. Organizes first Musicircus at University Orchestra for a major Bicentennial work, writes Renga

of Illinois, Urbana, in November: simultaneous perfor- (using 361 Thoreau drawings) and , mances of as much unrelated music as possible. incorporating live or recorded songs, calls, and hol- 1968 lers. Intensive preoccupation with Finnegans Wake

Conceives Reunion , a game of chess on an amplified board begins .in which moves activate sound systems created by several 1977 musicians. Performed in Toronto with Marcel and Teeny Advised by Yoko Ono to consult Shizuko Yamamoto, adopts Duchamp, David Behrman, Lowell Cross, Gordon Mumma, and macrobiotic diet. Score for Renga exhibited at the David Tudor. Elected to the American Academy and Insti- Museum of Modern Art. Begins to write Freeman Etudes tute of Arts and Letters. for violinist Paul Zukofsky in precisely determined 1968-69 notation. Continues improvisatory work such as Inlets As associate at the Center for Advanced Study at the for instruments which include water-filled conch shells. University of Illinois in Urbana, collaborates with 1978 Lejaren Hiller on vast work for harpsichord and tape, At the invitation of Kathan Brown, begins sessions of inspired in part by Mozart. For this project, pro- printmaking at Crown Point Press in Oakland, California, gramming the I Ching into a computer makes the thousands using chance operations and experimenting with various

of required chance operations possible. techniques. Publishes Writing Through Finnegans Wake . HPSCHD is performed in the Assembly Hall at Urbana on Elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and May 16, 1969, with 7 harpsichords, 51 tapes, 7 film Sciences. projectors, and 80 slide projectors for an audience as 1979 large as 9000. Many of the slides and films are on the At IRCAM in Paris, assisted by engineer John Fulleman,

subject of space travel. produces , an Irish Circus on Finnegans Wake , 1969 using several thousand sounds mentioned in the Wake or Artist in residence. University of California at Davis. recorded in places referred to by Joyce. Devises a Publishes collection of scores assembled for the Founda- means for "translating" any book into music. tion for Contemporary Performance Arts as Notations 1980

(with Alison Knowles). Executes first major graphic Third and Fourth Writings Through Finnegans Wake . Be-

work. Not Wanting to Say Anything About Marcel (with gins Fifth Writing . Completes James Joyce, Marcel

Calvin Sumsion) . Begins work on , de- Duchamp, Erik Satie: An Alphabet .

rived from Satie's Socrate , by chance operations, for 1981

piano and later for orchestra. Increasingly interested In September, gives live performance of Empty Words , in working with language: letters, syllables, words, broadcast over National Public Radio. Presents Compo- and phrases freed from syntax and meaning. sition in Retrospect referring to his own past works, at 1970 the eighth Computer Music Conference in Denton, Texas, Fellow for Advanced Studies at Wesleyan University. in November. In the same month. Thirty Pieces for Five Makes increasing use of Thoreau's writing to derive both Orchestras is given its performance in Pont-a-Mousson, music and prose. Writes Song Books for solo voice re- near Metz, France. Begins Dance/4 Orchestras for the ferring (and not referring) to the theme "We connect Cabrillo Music Festival in 1982. Satie with Thoreau." During Paris Music Weeks in Octo- 1982 ber, organizes Musicircus at Les Halles. Completes two extended sequences of prints at Crown 1971 Point Press, Changes and Disappearances and On the Sur-

Writes 62 Mesostics re Merce Cunningham . Increasingly face , and begins another series, Dereau . Roarator io is interested in lecture/performance for voice and tape. performed in Toronto at the end of January. Themes and

Begins study of the writings of Mao Zedung. Variations , a non-syntactical text derived from 110 1972 ideas which continue to seem important to him from his Produces Mushroom Book (with Lois Long and Alexander H. past work, and the names of 15 people who have influ- Smith), for which he makes 10 lithographs. European enced him, is published by Station Hill Press. The Mud

concert tour with David Tudor, often performing Meso- Book , created with Lois Long in the late 1950s, is pub- stics or Mureau (mix from Thoreau's writing) superim- lished in facsimile. In July, the festival New Music

posed upon Tudor ' s electronic works. Around this time, America, presented in Chicago, is dedicated to Cage. moves back to Manhattan from Stony Point. As yet unrealized projects include Atlas Borealis for 1974 chorus and orchestra, using the Ten Thunderclaps from

. Begins extended work for solo piano. Etudes Australes , Finnegans Wake • • Branches , 1976 Score without Parts (40 Drawings by lines, straight drypoint lines, and

For percussion solo, duet, trio, or or- Thoreau): Twelve Haiku , 1978 photographs of the Thoreau drawings chestra {for any number of players) Hard-ground etcTiing, ^sbrt^gYound^etch- were used to make the images. In com- using amplified plant materials ing, photo-etching, drypoint, sugar posing each print. Cage allowed the Color xerox, 8 1/2 x 11 aquatint, and engraving, 22 x 30 selected plates to rotate 360 degrees C.F. Peters Corporation, New York Collection of the artist around the intersection point of two Additional visual dimensions were added quadrants of the paper. While some » A Dip in the Lake: Ten Quicksteps, to the conductor's page of Cage's score portion of every selected plate would Sixty-two Waltzes, and Fifty-six for Score (40 Drawings by Thoreau) and appear in the photo-etching, often a

Marches for Chicago and Vicinity , 23 Parts , 1974. Some of the images are large portion would be rotated off the 1978 based upon photographs of Thoreau 's paper. Due to the variables involved, A work for listener, performer and/or drawings, others were traced or drawn the photographs were sometimes devel-

recorder scored for two places, three freehand . The etching process and oped in such a way that nothing was places and four places with the idea of the color of each image were selected visible. Accordingly, Cage added "Dis- two step, waltzes and marches. The by chance operations. appearances" to "Changes," his original concept is to go to the places and title for the series. Additionally, he • either listen to, perform at and/or Seven Day Diary (Not Knowing) , 1978 consulted the I Ching as to whether any make a recording of the sounds and 7 prints, each 12 x 17 given plate should be altered during therefore possibly connect with the a. Hard-ground etching and drypoint the actual printing of an etching. If life of the city. b. Hard-ground etching, drypoint and a change was called for, he added an Felt-tip pen on map of Chicago, 52 x 42 soft-ground etching engraving or a drypoint. Each time two Margarete Roeder Fine Arts, New York c. Hard-ground etching, drypoint, plates overlapped, a separate run or soft-ground etching, and sugar aqua- pass through the press was required. ' Litany for the Whale , 1980 tint There are two and sometimes three im- Recitation and thirty-two responses for d. Hard-ground etching, drypoint, pressions of the same image. two voices without vibrato W=wou as in soft-ground etching, sugar aquatint, • would H=hu as in hut A=ah L=ll as in photo-etching, and found objects On the Surface , 1980-82 will E=e as in under. A "word" is e. Hard-ground etching, drypoint, Intaglio, 4 prints from an edition of sung in one breath but pronouncing each sugar aquatint, photo-etching, found 35 unique but related images, each letter separately and giving more or objects, and color etching 18 X 24 less equal time (J=72) to each letter f. Hard-ground etching, drypoint, Crown Point Press, Oakland, Ca. except the last (or only) letter of a soft-ground etching, sugar aquatint, Cage started with 32 pieces of scrap word which is to be held longer than photo-etching, found objects, and metal which were then cut in 2 parts as the others. Let there be a short si- color etching printing plates. A grid of 64 segments lence after each response. The first g. Hard-ground etching, drypoint, on each side of the paper was made by singer sings the recitation. The sing- sugar aquatint, photo-etching, found chance operation to print these plates. er follows with the first response (the objects, and color etching On this grid each plate was rotated 360 second singer that is) . A short si- Produced over seven days, this series degrees around the intersection point

lence and the recitation. The first records Cage's first encounters with of 2 quadrants determined by the I^

singer then sings the second response, various techniques of printmaking. A Ching . A floating grid was located on waits and then sings the recitation, et- new technique was introduced each day. the original grid and then rotated on cetera, quietly, without dynamic changes. Cage made all the marks of these prints the original grid's 2 quadrants. On Photostat copy, made by Ozalid process, without looking at the plate on which this floating grid, all loci were de- 2 was working. on paper, pages, each' 9 5/8 x 8 1/2 he termined by consulting the I Ching . C.F. Peters Corporation, New York The I Ching determined which plates • Signals , 1978 would be used in a print, and in what Prints Drypoint, engraving, and photo-etching, color each of those plates would be 4 prints from an edition of 25 re- printed. To position the plates. Cage • Lithograph A , from Not Wanting to Say lated images, each 13 x 20 found the Golden Section of the com- Anything About Marcel , 1959 3 prints Collection of the artist, 1 posing grid, and then divided the area Lithograph, 27 5/8 x 40 1/4 print Collection of Jasper Johns above that line into 35 equal horizon- Whitney Museum of American Art; Gift of Each impression of Signals is unique. tal sections. The top line of each of Mr. and Mrs. Sylvan Cole, Jr. 81.35.3 Chance operations dictated the use of these sections became an imaginary "ho- its three elements: circles, straight rizon" line (or "surface") that drops • Lithograph B , from Not Wanting to Say lines, and Thoreau drawings. After a down a step with each successive print. Anything About Marcel , 1969 single impression was pulled, each The space in which the plates fall in Lithograph, 27 1/2 x 40 plate was cancelled. The cancelled the 35th and final print is the Golden Collection of the artist plate and the working drawings which Section. If a plate happened to fall charted its configurations were sold on the horizon, it was cut on a • Plexigram II , from Not Wanting to Say along with each print. straight line from one of the plate Anything About Marcel , 1969 edges (where it hits the line) to a • 8 silkscreened plexiglass sheets, each 17 Drawings by Thoreau , 1978 chance-determined point below the "sur- 14 x 20 X 1/4 on a wood stand, 3/4 x Photo-etchings, 4 prints from an edi- face" on the perimeter of the plate. 14 1/2 x 23 tion of 25 uniquely colored but If the plate fell on the "surface" but Collection of the artist identical images, each 25 x 36 the part below the line was too mini- The 2 lithographs and 8 plexigrams 1 print Collection of the artist, 1 scule to be cut, it remained above, un- which constitute Not Wanting to Say print Collection of Jasper Johns, cut. So, with each successive print - Anything About Marcel were made in I print Crown Point Press, Oakland, even with each run of each print (some collaboration with Calvin Sumsion. Ca. , and 1 print Margarete Roeder prints have as many as 9 runs) - the They were intended as a tribute to Fine Arts, New York number of plates increased and the size Marcel Duchamp, which would in no way The images in 17 Drawings by" Thoreau were of the plates decreased. If a plate refer to Duchamp specifically. Cage drawn from 18 of the thumbnail sketches was so small it was impossible to ink, subjected the pages of a dictionary (one was repeated) in Thoreau's Journal . it was run through the press un-inked. to the I Ching . These pages were first They were magnified to scales determined All plates cut from an original were divided into 64 groups. From these by the I Ching . The process stressed printed together. The floating grid groups, by chance, words, then let- the outlines of the images. Cage worked was not used in such instances to en- ters, then fragments of letters were with all the pigments available at sure that all the segmented plates selected. These results were distri- Crown Point Press to produce the dif- would appear. Two impressions were buted using 261 typographical possibi- ferent hues of each print. pulled of each print. lities in 8 sets of 8 sheets of plexi- • glass, which Cage calls Plexigrams, and Changes and Disappearances , 1979-82 In conjunction with the exhibition the on the sheets of black paper which be- Drypoint, engraving, and photo-etching, following work is shown in the Lower

came Lithograph A and Lithograph B . edition of 35 related images, each Gallery of the Museum: II X 22 Robert Mahon • 2 1 Mushroom Book , 1972 prints Collection of the artist, John Cage: A Portrait Series , 1981 Lithographs, selected prints from the print Collection of Dove Bradshaw 216 black-and-white photographs, each set of 10, each 22 1/2 x 15 and William Anastasi, 2 prints 10 X 8 with text, and 9 charts, cop- Collection of the artist Crown Point Press, Oakland, Ca. ies of the original working notes Produced in conjunction with Lois Long Cage selected the size of the paper that explain the I Ching procedures and Alexander H. Smith sheets and then had 8 similarly sized used in producing the portrait series. copper printing plates cut into 66 Collection of Robert Mahon • 30 Drawings by Thoreau , from A Portfo- smaller plates of varying sizes and Divided into 6 series of 36 photographs, lio of Seven Prints Recording Col- shapes. The curved edges of these each series includes the number of expo- laborations with the Merce Cunning- smaller plates were determined by the sures on a single roll of 35mra film. ham Dance Company , 1974 line made by a greased string that was Series One, Two, and Three were made Silkscreen, 20 x 30 dropped from various heights onto the from one set of negatives. Series Four, Whitney Museum of American Art; Gift of plates; t^e straight edges were made by Five and Six from a second set. Both Calvin Tomkins 80.34.1 drawing a line between chance-deter- the negatives and the prints were made mined quadrants. Each of the 66 plates by subjecting various steps in the pho- was assigned a number. Curved engraved tographic process to chance operations.