George Maciunas: Piano Piece (1962) — an outrageous absurdist composition in 12 movements
(Referenced in Jon Henricks’ Fluxus Codex.) Instructions on how to perform all twelve movements of Piano Piece, the 1962 absurdist score by Lithuanian architect and graphic designer George Maciunas (then-leader of the avant garde collective Fluxus):
No. 1: Let piano movers carry piano into the stage
No. 2: Tune the piano
No. 3: Paint with orange paint patterns over piano
No. 4: With a straight stick the length of a keyboard, sound all keys together
No. 5: Place a dog or cat (or both) inside the piano and play Chopin (hell no!)
No. 6: Stretch three highest strings with tuning key until they burst
No. 7: Place one piano on top of one another (one can be smaller)
No. 8: Place piano upside down and put a vase with flowers over the sound box
No. 9: Draw a picture of the piano so that the audience can see the picture
No. 10: Write ‘piano composition no.10’ and show to the audience the sign
No. 11: Wash the piano, wax and polish it well
No. 12: Let piano movers carry piano out of the stage
Watch several of the movements, (including Carpenter’s Piece — No. 13, 1964, an ancillary composition in which performers hammer nails into piano keys) successively staged by artists and musicians in 1985 at Denmark’s Festival of Fantastics, below.
Let the racket begin …