34'46.776" for a Pianist (1954) and 31'57.9864" for a Pianist (1954)

In 1953, Cage began composing a variety of "time-legnth pieces" - pieces whose titles refer to the length of time they are played: for example, 45' for a Speaker is a 45 minute composition for vocals. The idea was that the pieces could be played solo or in any combination, and Cage's original plan was that the work as a whole (which has come to be called The Ten Thousand Things) would be forever unfinished, as he could keep adding more and more pieces to it ad infinitum. As it happens, he abadoned the project after only three years. During that time, he completed two piano works for it: 34'46.776" for a Pianist and 31'57.9864" for a Pianist. Yes, Cage has indeed specified the time-lengths to the thousandth and ten-thousandth of a second. I assume he was being somewhat humorous here; presumably he did not actually expect the performer to have such a superhuman control of time.

Ideally, I would like to have reviewed these separately, but I don't own solo performances of each of them. Solo performances are available on the USB I-Ching Edition of The Ten Thousand Things from Microfest Records. This looks like an incredibly cool release: it contains all of the time-length pieces, plus a computer program that will play them in any combination, as Cage intended. Unfortunately, the cheapest I can find it is for £45, and I'm not willing to put up that amount of cash for the sake of this blog. Cage fans who are less frugal might want to check it out.

So I'm listening to the simultaneous performance of 34'46.776" and 31'57.9864" (plus three other time-length pieces) here. One of the things that initially struck me as odd about these performances is that the piano parts clearly continue for more than 34 minutes, the length of the longest. The reason for this is that when played in combination, the structure of each time-length piece is rearranged, so 34' can continue for longer than 34'. This is one of the big problems with not having a solo performance: you really are listening to a different composition.

Both pieces are pretty much along the same lines as Cage's other chance-composed piano works. Notably, these are among the very few chance-based piano works for prepared piano, which gives them a more varied and unusual timbral palette. Most notes sound like a standard piano, but some notes rattle, some notes thud, etc. They also include occasional other sounds - e.g. by hitting the exterior of the piano, vocalising, whistling, etc. However, because I'm listening to a performance with a bunch of other time-length pieces, it's not always obvious whether these sounds come from one the pianists or somebody else. In any case, the use of a variety of non-pianolike sounds certainly helps the piano pieces blend in seamlessly with the others.

(I would guess that one big reason why Cage dropped his Ten Thousand Things project was that in the later 50s he became increasingly interested in compositions that were indeterminate of performance - that is, compositions where important parts are left in some ways vague, and up to the interpretation of the performer, and so will sound significantly different in each performance. The time-length pieces were all fairly strictly notated. However, there are moves towards indeterminacy of performance in them. In these piano pieces, Cage does not specify the preparations exactly, so two performances might involve quite different sounds.)