Cage’s Number Pieces with Christian Wolff, Keith Rowe, and Michael Pisaro

Part of Cage: Beyond Silence →

“One7” (1990), for a solo performer, was written to celebrate the birthday of Cages friend Pauline Oliveros. It is one of a few Number Pieces in which there is no specific content whatsoever other than the time brackets. Cage instructs his performer to fill the brackets by any means of producing sounds. One can perform it as a solo piece or as the first performers part of “Four6” (1992), a later work composed for Joan LaBarbara, William Winant, and Leonard Stein. “One7” allows for great freedom; when Cage premiered the four-performer work with LaBarbara, Winant, and Stein in July 1992the composers last public performancehe described his instrument for the performance as shocking sounds.

At 1pm Christian Wolff, a composer closely associated with Cage, performs One7 with the Merce Cunningham dancers. At 2pm composer Michael Pisaro will be joined by Jesse Kudler, Ian Fraser, and Reed Rosenberg for a realization of Cages Four6. At 3pm Keith Rowe, founding member of the influential AMM, performs his on realization of One7 to Cunningham’s choreography.