Companion to John Cage

Celebrates the richness and diversity of Cage's achievements, providing a rounded portrait of an influential composer.

Booknews

This volume presents contributions by composers and musicologists that reveal the richness and diversity of composer John Cage, whose novel ideas included the development of the prepared piano and of the percussion orchestra, the adoption of chance and indeterminacy, the use of electronic resources, and other challenges to basic tenets of western art music. The chapters discuss aesthetic contexts; sounds, words, and images; and interaction and influence. Edited by Nicholls, U. of Southhampton). Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

David Nicholls is Professor of Music at the University of Southampton. Author of American Experimental Music, 1890-1940 (Cambridge, 1990) and editor of The Cambridge History of American Music (Cambridge, 1998) and numerous articles on topics in American music, he has also acted as contributing editor for the reissue of Henry Cowell's New Musical Resources (CUP, 1996) and The Whole World of Music: A Henry Cowell Symposium (1997). He is also editor of the journal American Music.