Anarchic Societies of Sounds

John Cage (1912--1992) is probably best known forworks that challenge the fundamental definition ofmusic---for example his groundbreaking 4'33. In thelast six years of his life however Cage wrote 48compositions now known as the Number Pieces---worksusually scored for conventional Western instrumentsthat often contained precisely defined pitches. Eachperformer in one of these pieces performs his or hermusic in a strict order but the actual start- andstop-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 anoverview of the series an exploration ofsources and compositional process an analyticaldiscussion of selected works a contextual inquiry into the works with respect to Cage's interests inAmerican anarchistic traditions and a concludingdiscussion that considers aspects of reception andhistoriography.