Twenty-Three



Category: Musical composition
Dated: Before June 21, 1988
Instrumentation: 13 violins, 5 violas, 5 cellos
Duration: 23'
Premiere and performer(s):
Dedicated to:
Choreography: ---
Published: Edition Peters 67228 © 1988 by Henmar Press
Manuscript: Sketches and worksheets (holograph in ink - 4 p. Folder 778); Score (holograph in ink - 13 lvs. Folder 1069), both in New York Public Library


The work is not to be conducted, as in most late Cage-compositions. Each player has his own chronometer and he/she decides on the starting time, sometime during or after the tuning of the instruments. The composition uses timebrackets, most of them flexible. Each part has some of the timebrackets deleted, resulting in a changing of ensemble composition throughout the work.

Sources: New York Public Library online catalog; Paul van Emmerik: Thema's en Variaties; James Pritchett: The Music of John Cage