Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Eric Theise <>]

Hi Miguel,

The Cornelius Cardew Choir performed from the Song Books last April at
San Francisco's Meridian Gallery.  I wish I had a copy of the score in
front of me before posting this answer, but my recollection from the
research I did at the time is that the dial references have a fairly
literal mapping to the equipment Cage was using: "wireless throat
microphones (designed by Paul Ketoff) [that] permit the amplification
and transformation of vocal sounds".

I'm left with the impression that that equipment included a console
with a number of dials on it.

Now I'm curious, so I will try and get a look at the scores again over
the weekend.  Endlessly fascinating, the Song Books.

--Eric