Music: Percussionist

"My composition Amores" tall, earnest John Cage has remarked, "is intended to arouse, shall we say, the feelings of love." Last week Composer Cage offered this quartet for drums, rattle, woodblocks, and specially prepared piano, at Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art. The piano strings had been damped with rubber wedges and the interior strewn with nuts & bolts. The instrument gave forth a subdued whacking sound. While Composer Cage produced these percussive clunks, his assistants obliged with their own gentle taps and wallops.

John Cage is the latest of a number of esthetes,...

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