B-Seite: John Cage
27'10.554, 15:04 Min.
For a Percussionist
Donald Knaack: Percussion
Stony Point/New York, 14. Januar 1956
Dauer unbestimmt
Published: Edition Peters 6778 © 1960 by Henmar Press
“Manuscript: Sketches (holograph in pencil - 22 lvs. Folder 211); Sketches (holograph in pencil - 6 lvs. Folder 212); Notes, dated Stony Point, N.Y., July 4, 1960 (typescript with holographic annotations, signed, in ink and in pencil by an unidentified hand - 1 lf. Folder 213); Score (holograph, signed, in ink - 28 p. Folder 957), all in New York Public Library” (zit. nach http://www.johncage.info).

Zur Musik von Marcel Duchamp:
“The second piece, ‘La Mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires même. Erratum Musical (The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors Even. Erratum Musical)’ belongs to the series of notes and projects that Duchamp started to collect in 1912 and which led to the ‘Large Glass’. It was neither published nor exhibited during Duchamp's life. There are many notes and projects, each dealing with a different task. They are difficult material to work with, as there are no comments or explanations by Duchamp to assist with interpretation. Like many of them ‘The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors Even. Erratum Musical’ is unfinished and leaves many questions unanswered. Even so, it provides enough information for a successful realization.
There are two parts to the manuscript. One part contains the piece for a mechanical instrument. The piece is unfinished and is written using numbers instead of notes, but Duchamp very clearly explains the meaning of those numbers, which makes it very easy to transcribe them into notes. He also indicates the instrument(s) on which it should be performed: "player piano, mechanical organs or other new instruments for which the virtuoso intermediary is suppressed." the second part contains a description of the compositional system. Duchamp's title for the system is: An apparatus automatically recording fragmented musical periods.
The apparatus composing the piece is comprised of three parts: a funnel, several open-end cars, and a set of numbered balls. Each number on a ball represents a note (pitch) -- Duchamp suggested 85 notes according to the standard range of a piano of that time; today, almost all pianos have 88 notes. The balls fall through the funnel into the cars passing underneath at various speeds. When the funnel is empty, a musical period is completed" (Petr Kotik, Liner notes to the Music of Marcel Duchamp (Cuts 1-5), zit. nach http://www.ubu.com/sound/duchamp01.html)

Zur Musik von John Cage:
“This is the last work in Cage's '10 000 things' series. Percussion instruments are divided into four groups: metal (M), wood (W), skin (S) and all others (A) e.g. electronics, radios, whistles etc.), represented as 4 lines in a system. The choice of instruments is determined by the performer. The vertical position of the notes indicates volume, the centerline representing a dynamic of mf. There are 3 types of sound events: point events, line events and a mixture of points and lines. The notation is in space where a page equals one minute. It may be performed as a recording or with the use of a recording. The compositional means included chance operations and the use of imperfections in the paper upon which the work was written. The work was previously titled ‘27'7.614 for a Percussionist’” (zit. nach http://www.johncage.info/workscage/2710.html).

LIT: John Cage: Silence. Lectures and writings by J.C., Middletown/Connecticut 1961; John Cage, Empty Words. Writings '73-'78, Midletown/Connecticut 1979; Arturo Schwarz: The complete works of Marcel Duchamp. Revised and expanded paperback edition, New York, NY: Delano Greenidge Editions 2000; Emanuel Dimas de Melo Pimenta: John Cage. The Silence of Music, Mailand 2003.