| Category: | Musical composition |
| Dated: | Mills College, Seattle,July 1940 |
| Instrumentation: | 5 players: player 1: snare-drum, hand-clap; player 2: 2 tom-toms, hand-clap, wash-tub, brake drum, string piano; player 3: piano, hand-clap; player 4: metronome, metal waste-basket; player 5: dance, speech |
| Duration: | 17' |
| Premiere and performer(s): | July 27, 1940 |
| Dedicated to: | --- |
| Choreography: | Marian van Tuyl |
| Published: | Edition Peters 67524 © 1992 (?) by Henmar Press |
| Manuscript: | Score (holograph in ink, signed - 36 p.), New York Public Library. |
| The programmatic design of this piece is quite unusual. It uses parody of children's songs, popular music,
and satiric humor, resembling the music of William Russell from this period. Contents of the composition: I. Axioms: a) The pupil is eager to learn; b) The pupil is constitutionally lazy; c) We deal with the total child; II. A Short Historical Sketch: a) Reactionaries; b) Revolutionaries - Pitched Battle; III. Vistas of the Future: a) Pessimist; b) Optimist. Cage presented this composition to Don Gillespie at C.F.Peters in 1992, just a few months before his death. |