A Story of Music, Urinals, and Chess

 

John Cage, Chess Pieces (1944)

    As I was doing research for an article about John Cage for Pocket Chops, I read about his friendship with artist Marcel Duchamp and their collaboration in the creation of a composition titled "Reunion".  Cage is probably best known for his composition titled "4'33", in which the score instructs performers not to play their instruments for the entirety of the piece.  Duchamp is likely best known for his controversial sculpture titled "Fountain", a "readymade" sculpture of a urinal on its side.  One could say these guys were making memes long before computers and the internet.

    Cage met Marcel Duchamp in the 1940s and immediately became enamored with the older artist.   Duchamp was also known as a premier chess player, and Cage eventually asked Duchamp to teach him how to play chess merely as an excuse to hang out with him.  Duchamp agreed and Cage went to his New York apartment once a week to play chess.  After many sessions Cage came up with the idea to play a public game of "musical chess".

John Cage, Marcel Duchamp, and Teeny Duchamp performing "Reunion" at its premier in Toronto (1968)
 

    This game of "musical chess" resulted in Cage's 1968 composition titled "Reunion".  In fact, this chess match is the composition!  Cage asked Lowell Cross (pioneering electronic music composer and producer, and inventor of the laser light show) to make a specialized chess board for the occasion.  The chessboard was made up of touch-sensitive squares, each one programmed to trigger a pre-composed piece of music.  The music was transmitted to one or more of eight loudspeakers arranged around the audience.  Each of the outside starting squares were programmed to be "off" when occupied by a piece and "on" when a piece was removed from it or moved to another square.  Each of the middle unoccupied squares were "off" until a piece was moved onto it.  This way the music didn't start until the first move was made. 

"Reunion" chessboard

    There were a total of 16 pre-composed pieces programmed into the board, which were produced collaboratively.  Four composers each composed four pieces for "Reunion".  These composers were Lowell Cross, Gordon Mumma, David Behrman, and David Tudor.  It's pretty typical for Cage to not have anything directly composed by him in his pieces, but rather for him to "design" the parameters of a musical event.

    Obviously, the length of the composition was determined by the length of the game.  Considering Duchamp was a premier chess player, the game unsurprisingly lasted less than 30 minutes, despite Duchamp playing with a handicap of only using one knight.  Cage then began a more evenly-matched game with Duchamp's wife, Teeny.  This game lasted five hours before it was adjourned in the early hours of the morning, and was picked up again several days later.  Teeny won.

    Although the moves of the original game were not written down, you can listen to a recording of the performance.  There is also an app, hosted by the John Cage Trust, that allows you to recreate the piece on your own.  Hear what your favorite chess moves sound like!