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Empty Words Music for Marcel Duchamp

"Empty Words" is a four-part "non-syntactical" work based on the journal of Henry David Thoreau. For the reading, Mr. Cage sat at a desk with a lamp and a watch, the text on a book stand, and read part of the third part of the work, which has only syllables and letters. Mr. Cage performed "Music for Marcel Duchamp" (1947) on a prepared piano, which I believe was an upright piano rather than a concert grand. The work was written for Duchamp's segment of the film "Dreams That Money Can Buy" by Hans Richter.

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