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- 1912- . US composer. A pupil of Schoenberg
- and Cowell, he joined others in reacting
- against the European music tradition in
- favour of a more realistic idiom open to
- non-Western attitudes. Working in films
- during the 1930s, he assembled and toured a
- percussion orchestra incorporating ethnic
- instruments and noise-makers, for which the
- First Construction in Metal 1930 was
- composed. He also invented the prepared piano
- to tour as accompanist with the dancer Merce
- Cunningham, a lifelong collaborator. His
- effect on contemporary musical thinking is
- summed up by the piano piece 4 minutes 33
- seconds 1952, in which a performer holds an
- audience in expectation without playing a
- note.
-