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Those involved with the composition of experimental
music find ways and means to remove themselves from the activities of the
sounds they make. Some employ chance operations, derived from sources as
ancient as the Chinese Book of Changes, or as modern as the tables
of random numbers used also by physicists in research. Or, analogous to
the Rorschach tests of psychology, the interpretation of imperfections
in the paper upon which one is writing may provide a music free from
one’s
memory and imagination. Geometrical means employing spatial superimpositions
at variance with the ultimate performance in time may be used. The total
field of possibilities may be roughly divided and the actual sounds within
these divisions may be indicated as to number but left to the performer
or to the splicer to choose. In this latter case, the composer resembles
the maker of a camera who allows someone else to take the picture.
John Cage
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