Arcana:

(CAGE, JOHN) (HILLER, LEJAREN). Cage, John & Lejaren Hiller. Buffalo & New York, NY: Lejaren Hiller & John Cage / Nonesuch Records, 1969. First Edition. Elephant Folio. Printed Sheet. Musical Score. Near Fine.. One 22 x 14 ½" sheet of perforated tractor-fed printer paper printed by dot matrix recto only, folded in fourths to make 11 x 7 ¼". This is the "(KNOBS) FOR THE LISTENER" instruction sheet inserted in the first Nonesuch Records 33 1/3 rpm vinyl pressing of a recorded excerpt of John Cage and Lejaren Hiller's collaborative 1969 composition "HPSCHD." It consists of a series of computer-generated output settings for Volume, Treble and Bass to be used by the listener to shape the sonic characteristics of this unique piece. "HPSCHD" received its world premiere May 16th, 1969 before an audience of over seven thousand at the University of Illinois at Champagne-Urbana, where Cage was a visiting professor at the time. The performance involved forty-eight musicians and technicians utilizing two hundred and fifty-six pieces of equipment for a duration of over four hours. For its recorded release (Nonesuch H-71224), Hiller created the "(KNOBS) FOR THE LISTENER" program on a CDC 6400 computer at SUNY, Buffalo to produce ten thousand individually-numbered instructional "scores" that uniquely alter the listener's pre-amp playback settings over the piece's duration. A well-preserved, complete and intact sheet NUMBERED 337 with its tractor-feed margins still attached folded by the publisher in fourths, as issued, offered by itself - separate from the album - showing a bit of age-toning. This is accompanied by copies of four clipped, concurrent 1969 articles about the "HPSCHD" performance from the "New York Times", "Washington Star", "Billboard", and "Time Magazine." Inventory Number: 026960