The Seven Last Words of Christ (Haydn) were not the original Latin but pietist poetry, written in German. Haydn was impressed with the new work and decided to improve on it, preparing his own choral version. He had the assistance of Baron Gottfried van Swieten, who revised the lyrics used by Friebert. This was the first work in a serial collaboration with van Swieten as librettist that continued with the later oratorios "The Creation" and "The Seasons". The choral version was privately premiered in Vienna on 26 March 1796 before an audience of the nobility, under the sponsorship of the Gesellschaft der Associierten. The public premiere was
The Seasons (Cage) The Seasons (Cage) The Seasons is a ballet with music by John Cage and choreography by Merce Cunningham, first performed in 1947. It was Cage's first piece for orchestra and also the first to use what Cage later called the "gamut" technique, albeit in an early form. Cage composed the music in early 1947, in the midst of working on "Sonatas and Interludes". A piano version was first completed, and an orchestral arrangement followed. Cage dedicated "The Seasons" to Lincoln Kirstein. The ballet was premiered on May 17, 1947 by the Ballet Society (by which the work was commissioned) at