For Prepared Piano (1951)

For Prepared Piano (1951) consists of four more or less one minute pieces, each of sixteen four beat measures, each structures in a 4X4 measure space, in which the continuity of composition was not usually linear, that is, for example, might have proceeded from measure 1 to measure 5 to 9 to 13 then 14 to 10 to 6 to 2 to 3, et cetera, that is, going vertically down and up instead of horizontally, the final horizontal continuity which is heard emerging more or less without calculation or exact intent. Each of the four pieces has its own restricted gamut of single sounds or small sound complexes (as in John Cage’s 1949 String Quartet).