CAGE, John
b Los Angeles, 5 September 1912
d. New York, 12 Aug. 1992 aged eighty.
He was the son of an inventor. After leaving Pomona College in Claremont in 1930 he went to Paris, Berlin and Madrid to study music, art and architecture. On returning to California he studied with Weiss, Cowell and Schoenberg, and took courses in theory at the University of California in Los Angeles. In 1937 he moved to Seattle, becoming composer-accompanist at the Cornish School. He organised a percussion orchestra in Seattle in 1938, and in 1939 moved to San Francisco. In 1941 he went to Chicago to give courses in New Music.
1933 (21)
Sonata for solo clarinet
1934 (22)
Six Short Inventions for seven instruments
1938 (26)
Metamorphosis, for piano
1939 (27)
First Construction (In Metal), for percussion sextet
Imaginary Landscape No 1, for two variable-speed phonoturntables, frequency recordings, muted piano and cymbal
1941 (29)
Double Music, for percussion
1942 (30)
Wonderful Widow of 10 Springs, for voice and closed piano
1943 (31)
She is Asleep, for twelve tom-toms, voice and prepared piano
Amores, for prepared piano and percussion
Perilous Night, suite for prepared piano (1943-4)
1944 (32)
A Book of Music, for two prepared pianos
Three Dances for two amplified prepared pianos (1944-5)
1945-8 (34-6)
Sonatas and Interludes for prepared pianos
1950 (38)
String Quartet in Four Parts
1951 (39)
Concerto for prepared piano and chamber orchestra
Music of Changes, for piano
Imaginary Landscape No 4, for twelve radios, twenty-four players and conductor
1952 (40)
Water Music, for pianist with accessory instruments
Williams Mix, for eight-track tape
4' 38" (tacet), for piano, in four movements
1953-6 (41-4)
Music for piano 1984 for 1-84 pianists'
1954 (43)
34' 46.776" for a pianist, for prepared piano
1955 (43)
26' 7.1499" for a string player
1957-8 (45-6)
Winter Music, for one to twenty pianists
Concerto for piano and orchestra (one to thirteen instrumental parts)
1958 (46)
Variations I, for any kind and number of instruments
Fontana Mix, (a)
a score for the production of one or more tape tracks or for any kind and number of instruments
(b)
prerecorded tape material to be performed in any way
1960 (48)
Cartridge Music
Theater Piece, for one to eight performers
1961 (49)
Music for Carillon, No 4
Variations Il
Atlas eclipticalis, for orchestra (1961-2)
1963 (51)
Variations III
Variations IV
1965 (53)
Variations V
1966 (54)
Variations VI
1967-9 (55-7)
H P S C H D, for seven harpsichords and fifty-two computer generated tapes (with Lejaren Hiller)
1969 (57)
Cheap Imitation, for piano
1970 (58)
Song Books
1971 (59)
Les Chants de Maldoror, for French-speaking audience of not more than 200
Mesostics, for amplified voice
WGBH-TV, for composer and technicians
1972 (60)
Bird Cage, for twelve tapes
1973 (61)
Etcetera, for small orchestra and tape
1974 (62)
Score and twenty-three parts
Two Pieces for piano
1974-5 (62-3)
Etudes Australe, thirty-two pieces for piano
1975 (63)
Child of Tree, for percussion using amplified plant material
Lecture on the Weather, for twelve instruments/voices, tapes and film
1976 (64)
Apartment House, mixed media event
Branches, for percussion solo and amplified plant material
Quartet for twelve amplified voices and concert band
Quartets I-VIII
Renga, for seventy-eight instruments and voices
1977 (65)
Freeman Etudes, for violin
Telephones and Birds, for three performers
Inlets, for four performers with couch shells
49 Waltzes for Five Boroughs
1978 (66)
A Dip in the Lake, for undetermined forces
Chorals for violin
1980 (68)
Litany for the Whale, vocal work for two voices
1981 (69)
Thirty Pieces for five orchestras