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Creator
Cage, John
Call number
JPB 24-7
Physical description
1.25 linear feet (2 boxes). 1 video_recording
Language
English
Preferred Citation
John Cage's Daughters of the Lonesome Isle score, JPB 24-7. Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Repository
Music Division
Access to materials
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Daughters of the Lonesome Isle is a solo prepared piano piece composed by John Cage in 1945 to accompany a three-person dance choreographed by Jean Erdman. This collection contains Cage's original score, which features the thirty-nine sets of piano preparations he prescribed for initial performances. A video recording of a later performance of the dance is included as well.

Biographical/historical information

John Cage (1912-1992) was an American composer and theorist who was one of the leading figures in twentieth century avant-garde music. Cage invented prepared piano composition, wherein a piano's sounds are altered by placing bolts, screws, and other objects between or on top of the strings. Cage's Bacchanale (1940) was the first prepared piano piece, which he composed for a dance by Syvilla Fort. His subsequent prepared piano pieces were mostly written to accompany dances, including many by Merce Cunningham. The majority of Cage's prepared piano compositions are for solo piano; others are for two pianos, or piano with different instruments.

Daughters of the Lonesome Isle was composed in 1945 for a three-person dance choreographed by Jean Erdman. She choreographed the dance in silence, then commissioned Cage to compose solo piano music around the rhythmic movements of the dancers, taking timings of each section. The score contains nineteen distinct sections and thirty-nine piano notes prepared with bolts, screws, nuts, and rubber fragments of various sizes.

Costumes for Daughters of the Lonesome Isle were designed by Erdman and Elizabeth Parsons. The dance premiered on February 4, 1945 in New York City. Cage's score has been recorded by numerous pianists, while the dance has been performed by various dance companies since its premiere.

Scope and arrangement

The collection contains John Cage's original 1945 score for Daughters of the Lonesome Isle, including the thirty-nine sets of preparations he prescribed for initial performances. The score features a list of preparations on the last three pages that describes material types, tones, assigned strings, placement distance from dampers, and affected surrounding strings. Each set of preparations is assigned a number one through thirty-nine. The score has numerous annotations and edits, some of which are likely by Cage. A 1960 published version of the score is also included in the collection.

The thirty-nine sets of preparations are housed in individual envelopes. Each set contains some combination of screws, bolts, nuts, and rubber fragments; most sets contain one or two items, while a few contain as many as four. The envelopes have the information from the preparations list written on them, including assigned numbers. Several spare preparations are included as well.

The video recording features a performance of Daughters of the Lonesome Isle excerpted from the 1993 documentary Dance and Myth: The World of Jean Erdman. The dance is performed by Nancy Allison, Leslie Dillingham, and Dianne Howarth, with piano played by Jerry Benton.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Donated by Nancy Allison in 2024.

Processing information

Processed by Nathan Evans in 2024.

Using the collection

Location

Music Division
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498
Third Floor