49Waltzes.com: a digital realization of John Cage’s 49 Waltzes for The Five Boroughs
John Cage’s 49 Waltzes for The Five Boroughs invites you to listen to the city in a new way.
Each chance-determined waltz consists of three chance-determined addresses where you can listen, perform, or make a recording.
Explore 49Waltzes.com and hear the city in a new way
John Cage originally created this work in 1977 on a commission from Rolling Stone, where the work appeared as a map with the waltzes overlaid in triangles, later composing a written score of the 147 addresses, grouped into 49 waltzes. A number of realizations have been made of this music from recording waltz sounds at all 147 addresses, to the remarkable Mode DVD of chance determined video snippets from all 147 points.
We have envisioned this website as an ongoing dialogue between audience, performer, and city.
As an audience member, you create your own performance of this work by visiting the waltz pages and interacting with the documentation on them, you can experience as much or as little of the sounds of the city as you’d like. As a performer, we invite you to contribute anything created at any of these locations and add it to the ever-growing collection.
— Randy Gibson and Oscar H Scott
In the press
Avant Media presents 49Waltzes.com: an online homage to John Cage — I Care If You Listen
John Cage’s 49 Waltzes for the Five Boroughs Goes Viral — The Fader