John Cage: a research and information guide

Back in the early 1960s, a friend suggested that I enter the school music festival with Cage’s 3’ 44”. I stuck with my early music on the recorder. That we knew about that work indicates how far Cage was known to English schoolboys, even in a school where Gilbert and Sullivan was about the most modern music we heard. Over the years, my musical interests have widened. The first Cage I heard was 49 Waltzes for the Five Boroughs in a set of invited short waltzes organised by Robert Helps, which introduced me to several American composers. Then, an...