- Date: 1948
- Composer: John Cage
- Period: Modern (1910-1949)
Review
Fresh from achieving notoriety with his invention of the prepared piano (meaning one attached various dampers, mutes, and noisy things to the strings inside the piano to transform it from a harmonic instrument into a box of percussion sounds), Cage wrote In a Landscape for the dancer Louise Lippold in 1948.It is a companion piece to Dream, written the same year for Merce Cunningham, and uses the same compositional technique. Namely, it is limited to only a certain number of tones and depends on the use of sustained notes to make its effect. In comparison with the earlier work, though, it uses more different notes and therefore has a more expansive feeling.
Cage wrote the piece to the rhythmic structure of the dance piece as conceived first by Lippold, who gave him the counts of the dance. He credits the lack of organization that was the usual state of these lists of counts with leading him to his ideas of "structural rhythm."
The tonal oddity of this piece is that all the notes are contained in two octaves. One of the two uses a mode based on B flat, while the other octave has only notes of a mode in the key of G. Shifts from one octave to another create a bitonal effect that creates a momentary impression of being out of tune, which gives In a Landscape a uniquely haunting quality. ~ Joseph Stevenson, All Music Guide
Albums with Complete Performances of the Work
Albums with Excerpt Performances of the Work
| Title | Date |
| Pieces in a Modern Style | 2000 |
