After the explosion of graph J, David Tudor inserts a silence of about fifteen seconds and then plays the eight chords of graph K around 1′20″. Graph K is visually distinctive; it is noted for having adorned the cover of C.F. Peters’s John Cage catalog. It is a grand staff, thick lined and gargantuan in its proportions, with a framework of dual ledger lines extending on either side. The clefs float off to the left, adrift from their usual positions. Instead of notes, Cage has drawn a jumble of polygons with vertices labeled as specific pitches. And the instructions for graph K are perplexing, to say the least. What does it mean to play only an odd or even number of tones in a performance? We surely know what the sided figures are, and Tudor plays them in the manner of staccato grace-like notes or punctuated attacks. But in relation to what? It may be that the logical cul-de-sac of Cage’s instructions is part of the point; the existence of a correct solution may be immaterial. Perhaps Cage is foregrounding inexhaustible esotericism—his almost mystical and naturalistic attachment to the impersonal powers of procedures, instructions, and calculations. This formalism provides discipline for all that is noble in the practice of indeterminacy. Note as well in Tudor’s performance that he uses the notation here, as elsewhere, as a guide for sequencing the tasks. Other than playing graph K relatively quickly, Tudor makes no effort to read the spacing of the chords as proportional notation (in which a timeline for a performance would move steadily from left to right).
Solo for Piano by John Cage © 1960 by Henmar Press Inc. Permission by C.F. Peters Corporation. All rights reserved. With permission of WERGO, Copyright © 1993. WERGO, a division of Schott Music & Media GmbH. Animated score developed by Michael Gallope and produced by Greg Albers.
