Cheap Imitation

Cheap Imitation is a piece for solo piano by John Cage, composed in 1969. It is an aleatoric piece created using the I Ching and based, rhythmically, on Socrate by Erik Satie.

General information

Like numerous other works by Cage, Cheap Imitation was composed for a choreography created by Merce Cunningham. In 1940s Cunningham made a dance based on the first movement of Satie's famous work Socrate, and Cage provided a piano transcription of the music (since Cunningham's dances were usually accompanied by means of piano only). In 1968 Cunningham suggested expanding the choreography by two movements, based on the remaining two of the Satie work. Cage, together with Arthur Maddox, set to work on a piano arrangement of these two movements, but when the arrangement was completed, he received news from Satie's publisher, Eschig, that he is refused the rights to perform the piece (even though Eschig never saw Cage's arrangement).

Since arranging Socrate was now forbidden, Cage decided to imitate the piece in a piano solo. The resulting work is a piece in three parts that consists almost exclusively of a single melodic line, with the rhythm based on Satie's music and the pitches determined using chance operations (via the I Ching, as was usual for Cage). The resulting piece was semi-modal. The three questions Cage asked the I Ching were the following:

1. Which of the seven modes, if we take as modes the seven scales beginning on white notes and remaining on white notes, which of those am I using?
2. Which of the twelve possible chromatic transpositions am I using?
3. For this phrase for which this transposition of this mode will apply, which note am I using of the seven to imitate the note that Satie wrote?

Over the next few years, Cage grew fascinated with the piece and produced two more versions. In 1972 he orchestrated the work for an orchestra of a mininum of 24 performers and a maximum of 95. In 1977 the violinist Paul Zukofsky (who also assisted Cage in composing the Freeman Etudes at around the same time) asked Cage whether he would be interested in making a transcription of the work for solo violin. Cage agreed, but Zukofsky had to teach him about violing playing and composition. The resulting transcription is transposed a major third higher than the piano version (otherwise several notes would be out of range of the instrument) and is identical to the piano version, except for a few passages. In 1976 a recording was made of the piano version performed by Cage himself.

Editions

• Original version: Edition Peters 6805, (c) 1970 by Henmar Press.
• Orchestral versions: Edition Peters 6805 AR/BR/CR, (c) 1972 by Henmar Press (all available for rental only)
• Solo violin version: Edition Peters 66754, (c) 1977 by Henmar Press.

See also

• List of compositions by John Cage

References

• Richard Kostelanetz. Conversing with John Cage, Routledge, 2003. ISBN 0-415-93792-2