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''Cheap Imitation'' is a piece for solo piano by John Cage, composed in 1969. It is an indeterminate piece created using the ''I Ching'' and based, rhythmically, on ''Socrate'' by Erik Satie. ==History of composition== Like numerous other works by Cage, ''Cheap Imitation'' was a result of his collaboration with Merce Cunningham's dance company. However, in this case the original choreography relied not on Cage's music, but on a piano arrangement of Erik Satie's symphonic drama ''Socrate''. In 1947 Cunningham choreographed a dance based on the first movement of Satie's work, and Cage provided a two-piano transcription of the music (since Cunningham's dances were usually accompanied by piano only). In 1968 it was decided to expand the choreography by two movements, based on the remaining two movements of the Satie work.〔Pritchett 1993, 162.〕 Cage, who was at the time working on ''HPSCHD'', a large multimedia work, requested help of an acquaintance from the University of Illinois, Arthur Maddox, and together they completed a two-piano arrangement of the remaining two movements.〔Kostelanetz 2003, 83.〕 The new choreography was to be premiered in early 1970. However, in December 1969 Cage received news from Satie's publisher, Éditions Max Eschig, that he had been refused the rights to perform the piece, although Eschig hadn't even requested to see the transcription. Because the choreography was based on the rhythms and structure of ''Socrate'', Cage could not simply compose a new piece of music. He decided to imitate Satie's work in a piano solo.〔 Cage titled the result ''Cheap Imitation'', and Cunningham responded in kind, naming the choreography ''Second Hand''.〔 ''Cheap Imitation'' became the last work Cage performed in public as a pianist: arthritis prevented him from doing any more performances. Nevertheless, even though his hands were painfully swollen, he still played it during the 1970s.〔Fetterman 1996, 191.〕 Cage grew more and more fascinated with the piece,〔Kostelanetz 2003, 84.〕 producing transcriptions for orchestra of a minimum of 24 performers and a maximum of 95 (1972) and for solo violin (1977) at the request of the violinist Paul Zukofsky (who in 1989–90 also assisted Cage in completing the ''Freeman Etudes'', which had been started in 1977–80).〔Pritchett 1994, 264–65 ''et passim''.〕 The orchestral versions, however, were not performed until much later, because the musicians refused to rehearse and would subsequently discover the piece was too difficult for them.〔Kostelanetz 2003, 84; Cage 1973, 89–91.〕 ''Cheap Imitation'' became something of a departure for Cage, because it was his first "proper" composition, in the old sense of the word, since 1962.〔Pritchett 1993, 164.〕 Furthermore, the open declaration of Cage's own feelings (about Satie's work) was something very unusual for his work, which was, since the late 1940s, almost entirely impersonal. Cage himself was well aware of the contradiction between the rest of his works and ''Cheap Imitation'': In the rest of my work, I'm in harmony with myself () But ''Cheap Imitation'' clearly takes me away from all that. So if my ideas sink into confusion, I owe that confusion to love. () Obviously, ''Cheap Imitation'' lies outside of what may seem necessary in my work in general, and that's disturbing. I’m the first to be disturbed by it.〔Pritchett 2004.〕 Cage's fondness for the work resulted in a recording of him performing it, made in 1976—a rare occurrence, given Cage's negative attitude to recordings. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cheap Imitation」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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