Indeterminacy - Ninety Stories

By John Cage

Item Number: PE.EP68142

ISBN 9790300754932.

Performance edition. Boxed set includes booklet with performance instructions (pacing, tone, selection, accompaniment), the history of and a bibliography about the work, a list of the variant texts used by Cage in his printed and spoken versions, plus a 5-page index which lists references and topics covered in the stories. The score for this work consists of ninety numbered stories, each printed on its own individual 5x7 card. Reprinted in agreement with Wesleyan University Press and the John Cage Trust.

Cage selected these stories, in this order, for his 1959 Folkways recording (available as a reissue from Smithsonian Folkways), but the performer may choose a smaller number. However, some stories are related, and attaca symbols are at the end of each story which continues in the next. Each story, when properly performed, has a duration of about 60 seconds, though some can take slightly longer to perform to ensure that no mistakes in the reading are made (this is very important!); the overall time should then be made up by speeding up one of the shorter stories to compensate. Time brackets on the cards enclose roughly every 10 seconds worth of text. A stopwatch or watch could be used to help a performer keep time. The stories should be read in a natural, conversational voice, so amplification is recommended for performance. Cage performed this work both with and without accompaniment, so the performer can choose either way; if accompaniment is used,it should not be synchronized (that is, loudsounds may occasionally drown out the reading).