Empty Words

This article is about the John Cage book. For other uses, see Empty Words (disambiguation).

Empty Words: Writings '73–'78 is a book by American avant-garde composer John Cage (1912–1992), first published in 1979 by Wesleyan University Press.

First edition
Author	John Cage
Language	English
Subject	Music
Publisher	Wesleyan University Press
Publication date	1979
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print
Pages	199
ISBN	978-0819550323

Contents

• "Foreword" (1978)
• "Preface to Lecture on the Weather" (1979)
• "How the Piano Came to be Prepared" (1973)
• "Empty Words" (1974–75)
• "Where Are We Eating? and What Are We Eating? (38 Variations on a Theme by Alison Knowles)" (1975)
• "Series re Morris Graves" (1974)
• "Sixty-One Mesostics Re and Not Re Norman O. Brown" (1979)
• "Writing for the Second Time through Finnegans Wake" (1978)
• "The Future of Music" (1974)

Also included are the following mesostics:

• "Many Happy Returns" (1979)
• "A Long Letter" (1977)
• "Song" (1979)
• "For S. Fort, Dancer" (1979)
• "For William Mc N. Who studied with Ezra Pound" (1979)
• "Wright's Oberlin House Restored by E. Johnson" (1979)
• "'I'm the happiest person I know' (S.W.)" (1975)

See also

• List of compositions by John Cage