John Cage, Alison Knowels / Notations
CAGE John Milton (Los Angeles 1912 - New York 1992), KNOWLES Alison (New York 1933)
New York, Something Else Press, 1969, 22x22,5 cm., paperback, pp [316], Typographic cover, artist's book entirely illustrated with facsimile reproductions of poetic compositions and handwritten musical scores deposited at the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts. Introduction by John Cage, in collaboration with Alison Knowles. First edition.
Bibliography: Peter Frank, 1983: pag. 31; Archivio della Fondazione Luigi Bonotto: Code n. FX1001; Maffei - Carboni, 2012, pp. 42-43.
CAGE John Milton (Los Angeles 1912 - New York 1992), KNOWLES Alison (New York 1933)
New York, Something Else Press, 1969, 22x22,5 cm., paperback, pp [316], Typographic cover, artist's book entirely illustrated with facsimile reproductions of poetic compositions and handwritten musical scores deposited at the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts. Introduction by John Cage, in collaboration with Alison Knowles. First edition.
Bibliography: Peter Frank, 1983: pag. 31; Archivio della Fondazione Luigi Bonotto: Code n. FX1001; Maffei - Carboni, 2012, pp. 42-43.
CAGE John Milton (Los Angeles 1912 - New York 1992), KNOWLES Alison (New York 1933)
New York, Something Else Press, 1969, 22x22,5 cm., paperback, pp [316], Typographic cover, artist's book entirely illustrated with facsimile reproductions of poetic compositions and handwritten musical scores deposited at the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts. Introduction by John Cage, in collaboration with Alison Knowles. First edition.
Bibliography: Peter Frank, 1983: pag. 31; Archivio della Fondazione Luigi Bonotto: Code n. FX1001; Maffei - Carboni, 2012, pp. 42-43.
The first edition was published in two print runs: the first consisting of 3,034 copies in hardcover with a transparent dust jacket bearing overprinted text; the second consisting of 4,018 copies in softcover. These were followed by a second edition of 3,000 copies in softcover.
In the introduction, John Cage states that the text of the book is the result of a selection process similar to the one used for consulting the I-Ching:
"This book illustrates a collection of music manuscripts which was made in recent years to benefit the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts. The collection was determined by circumstances rather than any process of selection. Thus it shows the many directions in which music notation is now going. The manuscripts are not arranged according to kinds of music, but alphabetically according to the composer's name. No explanatory information is given. The text for the book is the result of a process employing I-Ching chance operations. These determined how many words regarding his work were to be written by or about which of two hundred and sixty-nine composers. Where these passages (never more than sixty-four words, sometimes only one) have been especially written for this book, they are preceded by a paragraph sign and followed by the author's name." (from the preface)
Works and compositions by Eric Andersen, Robert Filliou, Ay-O, Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Paul Bowles, George Brecht, Stanley Brouwn, Sylvano Bussotti, John Cage, Giuseppe Chiari, Henning Christiansen, Philip Corner, José E. Cortes, Manuel Cortes, Ramiro Cortes, Luigi Dallapiccola, Franco Evangelisti, Morton Feldman, Ken Friedman, Franco Donatoni, Al Hansen, Bici Hendricks, Geoff Hendricks, Juan Hidalgo, Dick Higgins, Ray Johnson, Joe Jones, Mauricio Kagel, Allan Kaprow, Bengt af Klintberg, Milan Knizak, Alison Knowles, Arthur Koepke, Takehisa Kosugi, Jackson Mac Low, Walter Marchetti, Tomás Marco, Max Neuhaus, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Benjamin Patterson, Robert Watts, Terry Riley, Dieter Roth, Jerome Rothenberg, Tomas Schmit, Carolee Schneemann, Gianni Emilio Simonetti (“ANalyse du vir.age”, 1967), Karlheinz Stockhausen, Igor Stravinsky, Erik Satie, Yuji Takahashi, Wolf Vostell, David Tudor, Edgard Varèse, Emmett Williams, La Monte Young, and many others.
