Cage-Third Construction (P)

John Cage's Third Construction debuted on May 14, 1941 at the California Club Auditorium in San Francisco, performed by Xenia Cage, Doris Dennison, Lou Harrison and Margaret Jansen, conducted by John Cage. Third Construction was dedicated 'to Xenia for our anniversary'. The rhythmic structure is 24 times 24 measures. In each parts the phrase structure follows differrent proportion series, each of them being a rotation of the other: player 4: [8,2,4,5,3,2], player 1: [2,8,2,4,5,3], player 3: [3,2,8,2,4,5] and player 2: [5,3,2,8,2,4].

Number of Players: 4 (Parts Only)
Difficulty: Grade 6
Instrumentation:

Player I: Rattle, 5 Tin Cans, 3 Tom-Toms, Claves, Large Chinese Cymbal, Maracas, Teponaxtle

Player II: 3 Tom-Toms, 5 Tin Cans, Claves, 2 Cowbells, Rattle, Lion's Roar

Player III: 3 Tom-Toms, Tambourine, 5 Tin Cans, Quijada, Claves, Cricket Callers (split bamboo), Conch Shell

Player IV: Rattle, 5 Tin Cans, Claves, Maracas, 3 Tom-Toms, Ratchet, Bass Drum Roar

John Cage was born on September 5, 1912 in Los Angeles, California and died in New York City on August 12, 1992. He studied liberal arts at Pomona College. Among his composition teachers were Henry Cowell and Arnold Schoenberg. Cage was elected to the American National Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and received innumerable awards and honors both in the United States and in Europe.