Chance and Indeterminacy in Music
Thomas Siwe · University of Illinois Press eBooks · 2020
The incorporation of degrees of chance in the creation and realization of music captured the imagination of composers in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Led by the American iconoclast John Cage—the most prominent champion of chance and indeterminacy—composers began to include chance operations in the creative process. In so doing, they relied upon the performer to understand each work’s compositional style and to respond to and interpret the notation used, often graphic in form. This chapter examines the percussion works of John Cage, Morton Feldman, Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, and Herbert Brün. Cage’s transition from his use of the square root formula to his relinquishing control over every aspect of the compositional process is explored through his works 27’ 10.554” and Child of Tree. Feldman’s use of “time boxes” in the percussion solo The King of Denmark and his desire to remove both pulse and attack from his music is illustrated. Brün’s early use of a computer to create music brings the chapter to a close.