Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Ed Crooks <>]

This might be no more than coincidence (I don't have either score in front of
me, so I'm making a guess really), but according to James Pritchett, in the
short works for string player that make up 26' 1.1499'' for a string player
(and which were composed in 1953, the same year as Music for Piano 2), NB
indicates a particular location on the string "between normal and bridge". In
his liner notes to his recording of Music for Piano 1-85, Steffen
Schleiermacher suggests that the muting in these pieces is done with the
fingers directly on the relevant string of the piano. Therefore, in Music for
Piano 2, might NB refer to the location on the string the performer should
place their finger(s) when muting? If that is the case, then looking at the
score for 26'1.1499" for a String Player might provide an answer. But I might
be barking up the wrong tree here!

best,
Ed Crooks