Performing the Concert for Piano and Orchestra

Abstract

This chapter examines in further detail the practical work undertaken by the early piano soloist within the piece, David Tudor. It details the work he undertook to realise the piece for performance in three separate versions, which function in three separate contexts: with orchestra, as a part of Cage’s piece ‘Indeterminacy’, and alongside choreography. The chapter also discusses the additional frames in which the piece might be read when it is thought of in the context of that choreography, Merce Cunningham’s Antic Meet.