ORGAN2/ASLSP, John Cage (1912–1992) Welcome to the Sundt Organ Studio at Luther College. If you only have a few moments to stick around, I encourage you to read the “About the Piece” notes on this page. Then, skip ahead to read “Ideas About What to Listen For.” You can always read the “Personal Thoughts from the Organist” later if you’re still interested.
About the Piece: John Cage (1912–1992) provides relatively little information to performers of his piece outside of how to read his specific notational style (I have reproduced the score’s entire preface on the next page). To summarize, this score does not have a specific duration, but because of its proportional notation, a duration (at least an approximate one) needs to be chosen before beginning to perform the work. This performance will last approximately 24 hours. I have reproduced Cage’s explanation for how to read the unique musical notation below. Some may be surprised by the specificity of Cage’s notation—very little in terms of when things happen during the piece is left to the performer’s discretion. Because I have chosen to actually measure the lengths of physical space on the score to calculate the proportions of time needed for each musical change, I can already predict (within a margin of about a minute or two error) when every musical action will occur within this 24-hour performance. The score has 8 sections over four pages (Cage calls them “pieces”). Each section has two lines. Because this performance is 24 hours, each line will take 1 ½ hours, each section will take 3 hours, and each page will take 6 hours. At the end of each section there is a rest that takes somewhere between 5 and 20 minutes. I will use these, and several other moments throughout the piece to get up, stretch, eat, use the restroom, etc. Here is a sample of what the score looks like:
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