Rob Haskins

Anarchic Societies of Sounds: the Number Pieces of John Cage Rob Haskins

John Cage (1912--1992) is probably best known for works that challenge the fundamental definition of music---for example, his groundbreaking 4'33". In the last six years of his life, however, Cage wrote 48 compositions now known as the Number Pieces---works, usually scored for conventional Western instruments, that often contained precisely defined pitches. Each performer in one of these pieces performs his or her music in a strict order, but the actual start- and stop-times for each musical event vary because of Cage's notational system called "time brackets." While the time-bracket system ensured that the total time for a performance would always remain the same, it allowed sufficient flexibility to the performers in the spirit of Cage¿s indeterminate aesthetic--- the brackets made the music became, in his words, "earthquake proof." This book offers an overview of the series, an exploration of sources and compositional process, an analytical discussion of selected works, a contextual inquiry into the works with respect to Cage's interests in American anarchistic traditions, and a concluding discussion that considers aspects of reception and historiography.