Canon
Where to start with Cage
Essential works to know this composer by — spread across their styles-
KeyboardSonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano
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Chamber4'33"
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OrchestralConcerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra
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Vocal3 Songs, for voice and piano
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Stage4 Walls, for voice and piano
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ChamberFirst Construction, for 6 percussionists
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KeyboardHPSCHD, for up to 7 harpsichords and up to 51 tapes
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ChamberImaginary Landscape no. 1, for 2 variable speed turntables, frequency records, muted piano and cymbal
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ChamberString Quartet in 4 Parts
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Chamber0' 00", for solo instrument
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Orchestral108, for orchestra
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Keyboard2 Pieces for Piano
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Keyboard2 Pieces for Piano
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Chamber27'10.554", for percussion
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Keyboard3 Dances for 2 Prepared Amplified Pianos
Listening guide
Hand-curated paths into Cage's catalogueMost Popular
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4\’33”
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Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano
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In a Landscape
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Dream
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Music of Changes
Most Acclaimed
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Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano16 sonatas — the piano transformed into a gamelan by inserting objects between strings
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Music of Changespiano — every note determined by I Ching coin tosses
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HPSCHD7 harpsichords + 51 computer tapes — 7 hours
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Atlas Eclipticalis
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RoaratorioIrish Circus on Finnegans Wake — sound poetry + Irish music + electronics
Most Weird
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HPSCHD7 harpsichordists playing simultaneously with 51 tape channels — simultaneous chaos for 7 hours; originally performed in an arena
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Europeras 1 & 2only public domain opera is used; no conductor; all theatrical elements chosen randomly — scenery from different operas clashes
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Imaginary Landscape No. 412 radios on stage; performers change stations and volume — the content is entirely chance
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Williams Mix600 sounds recorded and cut into tape — earliest electronic music collage; took a year of assembly
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Empty WordsJoyce text progressively deconstructed — Parts I-IV remove successively sentences, phrases, words, letters
Similar composers
Same era, overlapping styles — by genre & period affinityWorks 134
- Keyboard
- ● Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano
- HPSCHD, for up to 7 harpsichords and up to 51 tapes
- 2 Pieces for Piano
- 2 Pieces for Piano
- 3 Dances for 2 Prepared Amplified Pianos
- A Book of Music, for 2 prepared pianos
- A Room
- A Valentine out of Season
- ASLSP, for piano
- And the Earth Shall Bear Again
- Bacchanale
- Daughters of the Lonesome Isle
- Dream, for piano
- Experiences no. 1, for two pianos
- In a Landscape, for piano
- In the Name of the Holocaust
- Metamorphosis
- Music for Amplified Toy Pianos
- Music for Marcel Duchamp
- Music for Piano 1, for piano
- Music for Piano 1- 85, for piano
- Music for Piano 2
- Music for Piano 2, for piano
- Music for Piano 20, for piano
- Music for Piano 21 - 36, for piano or any number of pianos
- Music for Piano 3, for piano
- Music for Piano 37 - 52, for piano or any number of pianos
- Music for Piano 4 - 19, for piano or any number of pianos
- Music for Piano 53 - 68, for piano or any number of pianos
- Music for Piano 69 - 84, for piano or any number of pianos
- Music for Two, for two pianos
- Mysterious Adventure
- One 2, for 1-4 pianos
- One, for piano
- One5, for piano
- Ophelia
- Perpetual Tango
- Prelude for Meditation
- Primitive, for string piano
- Root of an Unfocus
- Some of 'The Harmony of Maine', for organ and 6 assistants
- Sonatas and Interludes, for piano
- Souvenir. for organ
- Suite for Toy Piano
- The Perilous Night
- The Unavailable Memory of
- Tossed As It Is Untroubled
- Totem Ancestor
- Two2, for two pianos
- Winter Music, for two pianos
- Chamber
- ● 4'33"
- First Construction, for 6 percussionists
- Imaginary Landscape no. 1, for 2 variable speed turntables, frequency records, muted piano and cymbal
- String Quartet in 4 Parts
- 0' 00", for solo instrument
- 27'10.554", for percussion
- Amores, for prepared piano and 3 percussion
- Branches, for amplified plants and any number of players
- But What About the Noise..., for percussion ensemble of 3-10 players
- Child of Tree, for percussionist and amplified plants
- Composed Improvisation For Snare Drum
- Composed Improvisation, for bass guitar
- Dance Music, for 5 percussionists
- Fads and Fancies In the Academy, for piano and 4 percussionists
- Five, for 5 any voices or instruments
- Five-4, for 2 saxes and percussion, "In Memory of Stephan Wolpe"
- Fontana Mix - Feed, for percussion
- Four, for string quartet
- Four-4, for 4 percussionists
- Haikai, for flute and zoomoozophone
- Haikai, for gamelan ensemble
- Inlets, for conch shell, "Improvisation II"
- Lecture on the Weather, for 12 speaker-vocalists or instrumentalists and tape
- Living Room Music, for 4 percussionists
- Nocturne, for violin and piano
- One-10, for violin solo
- One-13, for cello solo
- One-4, for percussion
- One-6, for violin solo
- One-8, for cello with BACH bow
- One4, for percussion
- Quartet, for 4 percussionists
- Quartets I-VIII, for 24, 41 or 93 instruments
- Royanji, for double bass
- Second Construction, for 4 percussionists
- Seven, for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, viola and cello
- Six, for 6 percussionists
- Solo, for sliding trombone
- Sonata for 2 Voices
- Third Construction, for 4 percussionists
- Three, for 3 performers and a variety of recorders
- Three-2, for 3 percussionists
- Trio, for 3 percussionists
- Two-3, for sho and conch shell
- Two-4, for violin and piano
- Variations 2, for any number of players, any sounds produced by any means with or without other activities
- Variations 4, for any number of players, any sounds produced by any means with or without other activities
- Orchestral
- Concerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra
- 108, for orchestra
- Atlas Eclipticalis
- One 8; 108 and 109, for cello and orchestra
- Seventy-Four
- Thirty Pieces for Five Orchestras
- Twenty-Eight, Twenty-Six and Twenty-Nine, for multiple orchestras
- Twenty-Eight, for orchestra
- Twenty-Nine, for 4 percussionists, piano and strings
- Twenty-Six, for 26 violins
- Twenty-Three, for 13 violins, 5 violas and 5 cellos
- Two 3, 108 and 110, for sho, conch shell and orchestra
- Vocal
- 3 Songs, for voice and piano
- 36 Mesostics re and not re Marcel Duchamp, for solo voice
- 5 Songs, for voice and piano
- 62 Mesostics Re Merce Cunningham, for solo voice
- 8 Whiskus, for solo voice
- A Flower, for voice and closed piano
- Aria, for solo voice
- Experiences no. 2, for solo voice
- Five / Song Books
- Forever and Sunsmell, for voice and 2 percussion
- Four Dances, for piano, percussion and voice
- Litany for the Whale, for 2 equal voices
- Mirakus-2, for solo voice
- Music for 2, for solo voice
- Nowth upon Nacht, for voice and piano
- She is Asleep, for voice, piano, and percussion
- Solo for Voice 2
- Solo for Voice 58, 18 ragas
- Song Books Volumes 1 and 2, for solo voice
- Sonnekus-2, for solo voice
- Story
- Story, for chorus
- The Wonderful Widow of 18 Springs, for voice and closed piano
- Stage
- 4 Walls, for voice and piano
- The Seasons