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In the Water Music (1952) Tudor had been required to perform many actions away from the
piano (e.g., pouring water from pots, using a radio); in the late 1950s and 1960s such
theatrical and multimedia events became more frequent and were combined with
indeterminacy. Thus, the performance instruction in 4 33 no. 2 (solo for any player, 1962) is
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xreferplus - Cage, John (5 Sept. 1912, Los Angeles - 12 Aug. 1992, New York) 12/29/2005 06:02 PM
Cage’s works do not fit easily into traditional genres or categories. When he came closest to
achieving his aim of creating a musical composition the continuity of which is free of
individual taste and memory (psychology) and also of the literature and tradition of the art,
the response was not always positive: Atlas eclipticalis (for any ensemble from 86
instruments, 1961) was not well received by most of the audience nor by the musicians when
performed by the New York Philharmonic under Bernstein (1964). Nevertheless, Cage
increasingly received honors and commissions from major organizations: in 1968 he was
elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters; in 1978 to the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences; in the 1970s he received prestigious commissions from the Boston
Symphony (Renga, 1976), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Lecture on the Weather, 12
instruments or voices, tapes, and films, 1975), and IRCAM (Roaratorio, 1979).
Writings: Silence (Middletown, Conn., 1961). A Year from Monday (Middletown, Conn., 1967).
Notations, with A. Knowles (New York, 1969). M (Middletown, Conn., 1973). Empty Words
(Middletown, Conn., 1979). Themes and Variations (New York, 1982). I-VI (Cambridge, Mass.,
1990).
Bibliography: R. Dunn, ed., John Cage [catalog] (New York, 1962). Michael Nyman,
Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond (New York, 1974). Paul Griffiths, Cage (New York,
1981). Peter Gena and Jonathan Brent, eds., A John Cage Reader (New York, 1982). David
Revall, The Roaring Silence: John Cage, a Life (New York, 1992). Richard Kostelanetz, ed.,
Writings About John Cage (Ann Arbor, 1993). James Pritchett, The Music of John Cage
(Cambridge, 1993). Marjorie Perloff and Charles Junkerman, eds., John Cage: Composed in
America (Chicago, 1994).
Copyright © 1996 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
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