Adapting John Cage's Radio Music for a digital score player
Lindsay Vickery · Australasian Journal of Paramedicine · 2012
This paper discusses the creation of a digital score reader and installation version of John Cage’s Radio Music. The context surrounding the work’s composition is explored as well as the changing context of the work in light of the evolution of radio broadcasting since the 1950s. The score for the work is explored in detail particularly in regard to the issues its determinate and indeterminate aspects, and their implications upon the performance of the work. The concept of “available indeterminacy” is introduced to describe the real-world limitations that exist as a result of Cage’s specifications for the work. The presence of form-bearing structural features and consequently the potential for the emergence of an indeterminate and nonlinear formal structure from the performance of Radio Music is investigated.