Forty-Nine Waltzes for the Five Boroughs (1977)

Originally, Forty-Nine Waltzes for the Five Boroughs was a 44" x 64" coloured map of New York City upon which the composer superimposed multi-coloured triangles whose extremities indicate the various locations. The text score lists 147 New York street addresses, arranged in 49 groups of three, interpreted as a list of places where recordings of existing waltz melodies may be made, mixed with the sounds of the city. 

A two hour realisation (video available to hire) was made by Black Maria Inc., keyed to a reconstruction of Cage's original visual score and intended as a tribute to John Cage and the city which was his home for forty years.

A camera was taken to each of Cage's specified locations and recorded the surroundings with an automatic panning device. The length of each shot was determined by Cagian chance operations, supervised by Andrew Culver. The sequence of waltzes on the finished video was also chance-determined.