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.