C. F. PETERS - 100400
Cage Chess Pieces
Composer: John Cage
Publisher: Edition Peters
Instrument: Piano
Cage Chess Pieces
Juilliard Store
144 West 66th Street
New York NY 10023
United States
for solo piano
Deciphered and transcribed by eminent pianist Margaret Leng Tan from the 1944 painting--held since then by a private collector--created by Cage for the Duchamp/Ernst exhibition, 'The Imagery of Chess.' Says Tan,"'Having been hidden in plain sight for over half a century, the question, 'What does it sound like?', was irresistible."
From Ms. Tan's liner notes of her recording, on Mode Records 158: "Embedded like a musical fossil within the sixty-four squares of the 19x19 inch chessboard that comprises 'Chess Pieces' is...a through-composed score consisting of 22 systems of music read conventionally from left to right. Each system is a self-contained musical unit of 12 bars....There is no specific instrumentation given in either the draft manuscript or the painting. [Therefore] the piece could just as easily be played by two instruments....Neither tempo nor dynamics are provided. 'Chess Pieces'' modal and diatonic canvas is akin to Cage's 'Four Walls'....However 'Chess Pieces' is abstract and dispassionate while 'Four Walls' is emotionally fraught.'