EP68395 Haiku John Cage

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JOHN CAGE

Haiku

EIGENTUM DES VERLEGERS · ALLE RECHTE VORBEHALTEN

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

HENMAR PRESS, INC.A member of the Edition PEtErs GrouP

FRANKFURT/M. · LEIPZIG · LONDON · NEW YORK

Edited by

DON GILLESPIE

Recording: MODE 259

Piano Solo



Duration: 4 minutes



EDITORIAL FOREWORD

In 1950–51 John Cage composed seven Haiku for piano. The manuscripts are extremely

sketchy but can be deciphered, with only a few minor rhythmic details open to speculation.

In contrast to the familiar Seven Haiku of 1951–52, which Cage copied out carefully and later

published in Edition Peters (P6745), these earlier Haiku use the sequence of 7-plus-5-plus-7

sound events (in nine measures) as a structural underpinning, rather than the 5-plus-7-plus-5

sequence of the later composition. One wonders whether Cage would have eventually found

time to recopy these little pieces for publication. They reect a fascinating musical path from

the almost tonal Haiku I, reecting a language similar to the Sixteen Dances (1950–51), to a

completely atonal style akin pitch-wise to the Music of Changes (1951), but without ostensibly

using chance methodology. The rst of the four volumes of Music of Changes was completed on

May 15, 1951, two months after Haiku V.

The dates of these early Haiku conrm the powerful inuence on Cage of the Zen Buddhist

master Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, who gave three lectures at Columbia University in March 1951.

It cannot be a coincidence that Cage composed Haiku II, III, IV, and V during that month.

The titles of the pieces present a number of puzzles for the transcriber. Although using literary

themes similar to those found in traditional Japanese haiku (a dear friend, stillness, frogs), no

specic allusion to Japanese haiku in print in 1950 can be found. Haiku IV references the River

Plurabelle of Joyce’s Finnegans Wake; Haiku I might refer to a “dear friend,” David Tudor,

whom Cage met at the beginning of 1950, and who, it is said, once performed this piece.

One should note that the initial one and a half measures of the piece appear on the title pageof Cage’s manuscript of Sixteen Dances (1950–51), though no thematic reference to Sixteen

Dances has been found. Curiously, the manuscript of Haiku V contains Arnold Schoenberg’s

Los Angeles address in its right-hand margin.

The sixth Haiku is untitled and undated, but was likely also composed in March 1951; an

alternative version of the rst Haiku (undated) seems to have been rejected. These two pieces

are included here as addenda.

I should like to thank Paul van Emmerik, William Duckworth, Steffen Schleiermacher, and

András Wilheim for their valued assistance in making this edition possible. Jonathan Hiam of

the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center generously provided the editor with enlargedand enhanced Photostats from the manuscripts in the Music Division’s John Cage Collection.

Don Gillespie



Haiku (unpublished) / [John Cage]. October 5, 1950. Holograph, in pencil.Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.



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Addenda

Haiku VI (not numbered)

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[Haiku VI]

Haiku (unpublished) / [John Cage]. Undated. Holograph, in pencil.Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

EP68395 Haiku John Cage

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