John Cage
American composer, philosopher, writer and printmaker. He was educated in California and then made a study tour of Europe (1930-31), concentrating on art, architecture and music. On his return to the USA he studied music with Richard Buhlig, Adolph Weiss, Henry Cowell and Arnold Schoenberg; in 1934 he abandoned abstract painting for music. An interest in extending the existing range of percussion instruments led him, in 1940, to devise the 'prepared piano' (in which the sound is transformed by the insertion of various objects between the strings) and to pioneer electronic sound sources.
American composer, philosopher, writer and printmaker. He was educated in California and then made a study tour of Europe (1930-31), concentrating on art, architecture and music. On his return to the USA he studied music with Richard Buhlig, Adolph Weiss, Henry Cowell and Arnold Schoenberg; in 1934 he abandoned abstract painting for music. An interest in extending the existing range of percussion instruments led him, in 1940, to devise the 'prepared piano' (in which the sound is transformed by the insertion of various objects between the strings) and to pioneer electronic sound sources.
Anagram For Strings / Geography & Music (LP)
Rare 2005 release on Slowscan in an edition of 150 numbered copies (with three cover variations of 50 each) on clear vinyl. It couples a 1961 piece with a 1979 piece by the Japanese Fluxus composer, with an all-star performing group including Takehisa Kosugi, David Tudor, John Cage and Malcom Goldstein!
Anagram For Strings / Geography & Music (LP)
Rare 2005 release on Slowscan in an edition of 150 numbered copies (with three cover variations of 50 each) on clear vinyl. It couples a 1961 piece with a 1979 piece by the Japanese Fluxus composer, with an all-star performing group including Takehisa Kosugi, David Tudor, John Cage and Malcom Goldstein!
Edgard Varèse, Miloslav Kabeláč, Iannis Xenakis, Maurice Ohana, Carlos Chavez, John Cage, Kazimierz Serocki
Les Percussions De Strasbourg (2LP)2LP set including some of the most important compositions for percussion ensemble of the 20th century, performed by Les Percussions De Strasbourg and released by Philips in 1983.
Prima Vista (LP)
Rare compositions for solo instruments or small ensembles with or without electronics by some of the greatest XXth Century composers (Mauricio Kagel, Earle Brown, John Cage, Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Wolfgang Fortner, Klaus Hinrich Stahmer, György Ligeti, Henri Pousseur) spanning from 1952 to 1979 performed by Pro Musica Da Camera and released on Thorofon in 1981. With insert.
Appearance/Music for Solo Performer
Big tip! Beyond Rare! These historical recordings of a 1967 concert at Hope College in Michigan involving John Cage, Toshi Ichiyanagi and David Tudor, performing compositions by Ichiyanagi and Alvin Lucier, were recently discovered in an archive in Japan. The Lucier piece, "Music for Solo Performer", was the first musical composition to utilize human brainwaves; this 1967 performance, released here for the first time, is an early realization of the piece, featuring Tudor, Ichiyanagi and Lowell C…
Mozart Mix (Art Multiple)
One of the first sound multiples ever created. Published by Edition Block in an edition of 36 copies, signed and numbered. Complete sound installation in wooden box (10.2 x 86 x 81 cm) containing 25 cassettes with different recordings of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart compositions, 5 tape decks with built-in speakers, and accompanying screenprint. Created for the 200th anniversary of Mozart's death, Mozart Mix is considered the first sound installation published as a numbered edition. Cage composed wor…
Mozart Mix (Print)
Screenprint from one of the first sound multiples ever created. Published by Edition Block in two versions: the complete sound installation in wooden box (edition of 35-36 copies) and this screenprint in red (70.2 x 70.2 cm, edition of 35, signed and numbered). Created for the 200th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's death, Mozart Mix reflects Cage's fundamental aesthetic principles of chance, indeterminacy, and the dissolution of boundaries between composer, performer, and audience. The s…
Gelbe Musik (1991)
This copy is slightly damaged in transportation and has been mounted on plexiglass for protection and presentation. A rare signed and numbered screenprint created for the tenth anniversary of Ursula Block's legendary gelbe MUSIK record store in Berlin. Edition of 60, signed and numbered, 54 x 100 cm. Founded by Block in 1981, gelbe MUSIK was one of the world's most important places for New Music enthusiasts, a gathering point for collectors, artists, and radical sound practitioners. Cage (*1912 …
The Readymade Boomerang (Print)
Rare signed and numbered screen print by the legendary composer and conceptual artist. Published in a total edition of 60 numbered copies. Two-color screenprint, 70 x 100 cm. Created near the end of Cage's life, The Readymade Boomerang continues his lifelong investigation of chance operations, visual composition, and the dissolution of boundaries between art forms. The title evokes Marcel Duchamp's readymade while suggesting return, repetition, and transformation - key concepts in Cage's practic…
Gelbe Musik (1991)
A rare signed and numbered screenprint created for the tenth anniversary of Ursula Block's legendary gelbe MUSIK record store in Berlin. Edition of 60, signed and numbered, 54 x 100 cm. Founded by Block in 1981, gelbe MUSIK was one of the world's most important places for New Music enthusiasts, a gathering point for collectors, artists, and radical sound practitioners. Cage (*1912 Los Angeles – †1992 New York City), student of Henry Cowell and Arnold Schoenberg, was among the most influential co…
Number Pieces (Piano)
2018 release **
"Two versions of Cage's 'One' and one of his 'One5' performed by pianist Guy Vandromme. 'One' was written in 1987, a ten-minute long piece for solo piano. Per the Cage Works page, the commentary is: "This work comprises 10 systems of piano chords, varying in dynamics, selected by chance. Each system is roughly 1 minute long, and all but one is flexible. Each system contains 2 sets of chords. The order of each set is maintained, but the relationship between the two sets of chords …
Il Gesto Del Suono
2009 release ** Featuring: Marcel Duchamp, John Cage, Steve Jansen, Demetrio Stratos, Emanuele Casale, Robert Ashley, Stefano Scodanibbio, Edoardo Sanguineti, Nine Horses, Walter Prati, Robert Wyatt, Fred Frith, Massimiliano Viel, Picchio Dal Pozzo.
On Tour
2011 release ** "Stemming from the homonymous biennial festival in the Czech Republic, Ostravská Banda – with its twenty musicians – thrives under the direction of Peter Kotik, a veteran of unconventional orchestration and artistic director of the S.E.M. Ensemble in New York City. Standing out among the large group is Joseph Kubera – a name already referenced in a contemporary context – a talented pianist with a resume rich with collaborations with masters such as Alvin Lucier, Robert Ashley, Mo…
Utopia Americana
1992 release ** "A wonderful view of what is "American" in contemporary American music from an Italian producer's perspective, with a nice cover photo of Joey's Navajo Cafe and Dining Room framed by several pickup trucks parked outside. Including rhythmic-based music and sound-text rhythms from ordinary speech (Allen Ginsberg's works), some dreamy electronic music by Pauline Oliveros, and solo jazz by Steve Lacy, this is an interesting collection of new recordings and reissues of tracks from out…
Annum Per Annum
1995 release ** Contemporary music for organ by Arvo Pärt, John Cage and Giacinto Scelsi.
The Perilous Night / Four Walls
1991 release ** How well early, full notated, Cage is standing the test of time, especially the works for prepared piano and for percussion. The Perilous Night is a 12-minute prepared piano piece completed two years before Cage started his classic Sonatas and Interludes. The Perilous Night, which uses fairly elaborate preparations, is nothing like so well known, although included on Jeanne Kirstein's important 1970 CBS double LP. The connection between Cage and Jasper Johns was re-emphasized whe…
Singing Through
1990 release ** "Beautifully performed pieces from 1942 to 1985 by vocalist Joan LaBarbara with piano and percussion. Contains: A Flower (1950), Mirakus (1984), Eight Whiskus (1984), The Wonderful Widow of 18 Springs (1942) for voice and closed piano, Nowth upon Nacht (1984), Sonnekus (1985), Forever and Sunsmell (1942), Solos for Voice (from the Songbooks) #'s 49, 52, 67 (1970), Music for Two (by One) (1984)."
Violin Works
Modern music－especially American music, with its tendency to invite various traditions to share the same compositional space－can be a generous art, an art which welcomes inclusivity. Here are works by John Cage (b 1912), Yehudi Wyner (b 1929), John Harbison (b 1938), and Stephen Hartke (b 1952)－four American composers from different generations with different sensibilities, representing very different approaches to writing for the violin. Yet however much these works represent various facets of …
Chamber Works 1943-1951
Apartment House presents seven works from John Cage's early period, before he began his systematic exploration of chance procedures. This repertoire captures a transitional moment when Cage had moved beyond traditional methods but before he devised new formal systems—a period when, as pianist Kerry Yong notes, he was "forced to be guided by their instincts and intuition" producing "extraordinary music."
The program balances what Yong calls "simply gorgeous / gorgeously simple pieces like 'Dream'…
Diary: How To Improve The World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse)
2025 stock The acoustic publication of this "Diary" by and with John Cage represents an impressive document, spoken by an extraordinary voice, produced by one of the great artists of the 20th century. The new design of the 8-CD set includes a 64-page booklet in a presentation box (digi-box, carton). The booklet contains several photographs taken in John Cage's loft and during the recording in 1991.
“I began the Diary optimistically in 1965 to celebrate the work of R. Buckminster Fuller, his con…