An unlikely opera for America's birthday summons dissonance and harmony

Apartment House 1776 was commissioned for the United States Bicentennial in 1976 by an experimental American composer. Four singers, each representing a different American identity from 1776, perform music inspired by heritage and experience simultaneously. There is no narrative, and the singers’ parts are designed to proceed independently without regard to one another. The score is brief, but it draws from extensive material including early American hymns, spirituals, fiddle tunes, and Revolutionary War fife-and-drum cadences. The composer used chance methods influenced by the I Ching and sought to free sound from the composer’s control. The resulting sound can be dissonant yet sometimes harmonizes, reflecting America’s complexity.

"“And it's supposed to be completely independent and without paying any regard to how the other singers are singing,” notes Alexander Sulen Gedeon, currently directing Apartment House 1776 for the Detroit Opera. There's no narrative, just the four singers layering their voices with an orchestra. The result sounds like a dissonant mishmash at times, but there are also moments of unexpected harmony not unlike America."

"Although the score is only a page long, Cage left hundreds of pages of material for singers to draw from, including early American hymns, spirituals, fiddle tunes and Revolutionary War-era fife and drum cadences. A devoted student of Buddhism and East Asian philosophy, Cage drew upon the I Ching and the idea of chance as guiding principles for much of his work."

"“There's an aspect of liberation in that,” Gedeon said. “In terms of liberating your perception hearing things a little bit differently.” Cage believed in freeing sound from the constraints of the composer's will. Apartment 1776 was a co-commission from six major American orchestras with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts."

"Apartment House 1776 is at once simple and complex. Four singers, each representing an American of 1776, simultaneously perform music inspired by their heritage and experience. One is identified as white and Protestant, one is Black, one is Native American and one is a Sephardic Jew."

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