In 1977 the American composer John Cage created 49 Waltzes for the Five Boroughs of New York. The work’s score is a map of New York City and features 49 superimposed triangles. Each triangle symbolizes a waltz. Cage obtained each point of the triangles via chance operations to pin down a specific location. Performers of 49 Waltzes visit each identified location to capture its sounds and sights to experience, treasure and document the acoustic ecology of a place.
Cage encouraged transcriptions of this work for other places. Thus students of ASU’s School of Music and Arts, Media and Engineering teamed up to transcribe this work for their Tempe campus. The ASU Art Museum is presenting the Arizona premiere of their realization of 49 Waltzes as an audio-visual installation.
This is an exciting opportunity for the public to work with students to make their own Tempe campus waltz which will be added to the exhibition.
