I derived the method I use for writing music by tossing coins from the method used in the Book of Changes for obtaining oracles. The method itself is fairly complicated to describe and I shall not do that now. If you are interested you can read a detailed des-cription of it that will appear in the forthcoming issue of Trans/formations . Suffice it to say that tables are arranged re-ferring to tempi, the number of superimpositions , that is to say, number of things that can go on at once, sounds and silences, durations, loudnesses and accents. At a given instant half of the tables are mobile and half of them immobile. Mobile means: if that ele- ment is tossed, it acts, but disappears . |
John Cage