Freedom in experimental music: the New York Revolution. An essay written for TriQuarterly 52 (Fall, 1981). Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1981, pp. 223-43. The theme of the volume was Freedom in American Art and Culture.
[N.B. The discussion herein around Cage’s 4’33” is based on the first publication of the score by C.F. Peters. It wasn’t until 1992, while preparing the exhibit John Cage: Scores from the early 1950s at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, that I met Irwin Kremen. Irwin loaned the show an original manuscript given to him by Cage, which was subsequently published by Peters in 1993. Kremen’s score lacks the direction “tacet,” and Cage’s note found in the previous Peters editions. It is also laid out proportionally (1 page=7 inches=56 seconds) in actual size, unlike the SOURCE facsimile of it, published in 1967, where it was reduced. The original manuscript as premiered by David Tudor, consisting of actual measures on staff paper with no notes, is lost.]

A John Cage Reader (Peter Gena and Jonathan Brent, eds.). New York: C.F. Peters Corp. (expanded cloth edition, 1983); and TriQuarterly 54. Evanston, IL: NU Press (paper, 1982).

H.C.E. (Here comes Everybody). A written transcript of a recorded conversation about John Cage with Morton Feldman that took place in his apartment in Buffalo on January 9, 1982. The text was edited by the author, and not all of the taped dialog was used in this article—prepared for A John Cage Reader.

After Antiquity (John Cage in conversation with Peter Gena). A written transcript of a recorded conversation with John Cage that took place in his New York loft on March 31, 1982. Originally published in the catalog for Mayor Byrne’s New Music America ’82, it was subsequently included in A John Cage Reader (hardbound, C. F. Peters edition only).

Program Notes for A Dip in the Lake (1978), written for a performance at Mayor Byrne’s New Music America ’82, July 5-11, 1982, Chicago.

Everything is Opera. A written transcript of Robert Ashley in conversation with Peter Gena. Formations, No. 4 (Spring, 1985). Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.

Program Notes for Hymnkus (1986). Hymnkus, by John Cage was commissioned through NEA Consortium commissioning Grant awarded to the Cornish Institute New Music Ensemble, the Relâche Ensemble, and InterArts Ministry Ensemble. The Chicago premiere took place in the Board of Trade Room of the Art Institute of Chicago on April 7, 1987. It was repeated on April 26, 1988 in the Arthur Rubloff Auditorium at the Art Institute of Chicago, with the composer in residence. Both performances were conducted by Peter Gena.

Cage and Rauschenberg: Purposeful Purposelessness Meets Found Order. An essay written for the exhibition guide to John Cage: Scores from the early 1950s at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. The show ran concurrently with Robert Rauschenberg, The Early 1950s. February 8 - April 19, 1992.


Didactics for John Cage: Scores from the Early 1950s. The short descriptions displayed with each exhibited score.

Introduction of John Cage for the Poetry Center Benefit. The Art Institute of Chicago, Arthur Rubloff Auditorium, March 1, 1992.

John Cage 1912-1992. An obituary for The New Art Examiner (October, 1992): 9.

John Cage and the New York School: A Hyperlecture/Conversation. Presented at the Warsaw Museum of Contemporary Art for the Days of Silence Symposium, Warsaw, Poland, October 7, 1993; and in a musicology symposium at the School of Music, Columbia University, NYC, February 18, 1994.

Being There: Time and Memory in the Geoglyphs of Andrew Rogers. In Time and space: Cappadocia, Turkey: 2007-2011, by Andrew Rogers. Victoria (Australia), South Yarra: 2013.

Review of Records Ruin the Landscape: John Cage, the Sixties, and Sound Recording, by David Grubbs. In caa.reviews, January 4, 2017.