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Cage studied briefly with Arnold Schoenberg, also with Henry Cowell, and joined others in reacting against the European music tradition in favour of a freer style open to non-Western attitudes. Working in films during the 1930s, Cage assembled and toured a percussion orchestra using ethnic instruments and noisemakers, for which Double Music (1941) was composed (with Lou Harrison). He invented the prepared piano, in which different objects are inserted between the strings, altering the tone and the sound produced, to tour as accompanist with the dancer Merce Cunningham, a lifelong collaborator.
Blue stands for the Pacific Ocean. The yellow stripe represents the Equator. The points of the star symbolize the island's 12 original tribes. Effective date: 31 January 1968.
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