Which composer who studied under John Cage created a piece which involved the manipulation of electric metronomes?
Music for Electric Metronomes Music for Electric Metronomes is an avant-garde aleatoric composition written in 1960 by Japanese composer Toshi Ichiyanagi for any number of performers between three and eight. The piece involves the manipulation of electric metronomes, followed by various unspecified sounds and actions. It is a very theatrical piece, and reflects Ichiyanagi's affiliation with Fluxus, an experimental art movement from the sixties. The only true scored "instrument" is an electric metronome for each individual player, though the varying sounds and/or actions may involve many different instruments and objects at the discretion of the performer. Because the graphic notation of score (which is a series of dashes, lines, and numbers in an erratic pattern of connected paths) leaves a lot of room for personal interpretation and expression, each performance is unique, and almost certainly cannot be reproduced. There is no conductor for the performance. It has been recorded on the album "Toshi Ichiyanagi: 1960's & 1990's". In a review of a performance by the S.E.M. Ensemble in 1992 at the Paula Cooper Gallery, the music critic of "The New York Times", Alex Ross, described the piece as "merely a timid, spastic prelude to György Ligeti's monumental "Poème symphonique" for 100 metronomes".
Harmonium (Adams) Harmonium is a composition for chorus and orchestra that could be considered a choral symphony in all but name, by the American composer John Adams, written in 1980-1981 for the first season of Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, California. The work is based on poetry by John Donne and Emily Dickinson. It is regarded as one of the key compositions of Adams' "minimalist" period. The San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, with conductor Edo de Waart, gave the premiere of the work on 15 April 1981, and subsequently recorded it. The UK premiere was on 13 October 1987 at Birmingham Town Hall, with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) conducted by Simon Rattle. Rattle and the CBSO gave the London premiere on 28 July 1990 at The Proms.