Two Pastorales

Composed between 1951 and 1952. Premiered in New York, February 10, 1952.

14 minutes

The Two Pastorales were composed employing chance operations involving the same compositional techniques as Cage employed in his composition of Music of Changes. The strings are plucked with the finger, or occasionally muted with cymbal sticks. The performance instructions are very precise. Notation of sounds to be made is spatial, and tempo is indicated by large numbers entered above the staff.

There are 10 recordings of Two Pastorales in our database.

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John Cage

Joshua Pierce, piano and prepared piano. Jay Clayton, voice (in She is Asleep). Paul Price Percussion Ensemble (in She is Asleep): Michael Holchrum, Steve Kastuck, Jeff Kraus and Paul Price, percussion. Joshua Pierce, conductor.

Tomato