Theatre Piece (1960)

This work was originally used as music for the choreographed piece by Merce Cunningham of the same title. Theatre Piece is a composition indeterminate of its performance. It is one of Cage’s earliest works to use time brackets. These time brackets indicate a period of time within which an action may be made. The actions are taken from a gamut of 20 nouns and/or verbs, chosen by the performer. The compositional means were the materials of Fontana Mix. Parts are provided for 1–8 performers, which may be used in whole, in part, or in any combination.