26'1.1499" for a String Player
by John Cage
- Instrumentation
- Cello
- Composed
- 1955
- Duration
- 26'1''
- Publisher
- Edition Peters (Henmar Press)
Purchase or download
About this piece
Begun in 1953 and completed in New City, New York, on 15 October 1955, this is Cage's solo for 'a string player' from his 'Ten Thousand Things' project. It is a graph piece in which horizontal space equals time, composed through chance operations and the imperfections Cage found in the paper, and it folds in five earlier short string pieces dedicated to the players Broadus Earle, Matthew Raimondi, Seymour Barab, Walter Trampler and others. It can be played alone, in whole or in part, or simultaneously with 27'10.554" for a percussionist, the two pianist pieces and 45" for a speaker. Peters EP 6779 is a 96-page spiral-bound score.
Technical overview
Graphic notation (space = time) specifying string, bow pressure and position across a 26-minute span; the player must map the graph onto any four-string instrument and sustain concentration throughout.