John Cage's Cheap Imitation was the result of a special occasion in December 1969: A project of the choreographer and dancer, Merce Cunningham, wanting to include Satie's Socrate in the version for small orchestra and voice, was threatened from taking place due to the high fees for the material; simultaneously the French publisher refused Cage permission to arrange the work for two pianos. Cage found a way out with the Cheap Imitation, in which he subjected the entire score of Socrate to a type of metamorphosis. With the aid of a chance process developed from the Taosit oracle I Ching he transformed Satie's score into a new composition, in which however the contours of the original work were still clearly recognizable (bar division, rhythm, agogic), but especially the pitches and their octave registers were changed. [...]