THREE TRANSLATIONS OF O: A FEW THOUGHTS AND EXPLANATONS MICHAEL FOWLER BELIEVE IT WAS CAGE who made a point about the distinction between performance, composition and listening: three distinct kinds of experi- ence that interpenetrate one another. As a performer, and especially due to working in contemporary music, I believe that these three areas of per- ception or experience, positioned separately, ideally collapse into one experience in a great performance. I think that most of us have felt a time in a concert where a piece of music radiates a totality of experience in which the roles of composer, performer and listener just seem to vanish. By this I mean that no role stands clear of another—they all just seem welded together as a total experience. Interpreting Ben Boretz’s piano work O raised these issues, and in my experience of the work (as perhaps an insider), I felt compelled to look beyond the composition as simply a piece of music. Having performed O on a number of occasions, listening I