A chance-analysis

of John Cage’s

Music of Changes

Aaron Zimmerman

2

"Perhaps we musicologists have been unable,

due to conceptual or methodological problems,

to handle Cage's compositions analytically,

and have dismissed them from our field

of critical vision rather than alter our approach."

James Pritchett

“My intention has been,

often,

to say what I had to say

in a way

that would exemplify it:

that would conceivably,

permit the listener

to experience

what I

had to say

rather than just

hear about it.”

John Cage

3

Preface

It is in the spirit of curiosity that I approach John Cage’s Music of Changes. The

forty-minute piano piece was written by the crafting of a compositional system involving

charts of musical elements like durations and pitches. To create the note-to-note

continuity of the piece, Cage tossed three coins six times to obtain a numbered I Ching

hexagram (about which I will speak more below). Therefore abstracting the resulting

score from musical taste. He created a system of rules, almost a game or sorts, and then

initiated the process and the score to Music of Changes is the result. It was a momentous

turning point for Cage’s musical output, as it was the first time he turned over an entire

piece to chance operations. Throughout the rest of his life, chance remained a

cornerstone of his compositional strategy.

There has been little scholarly attention devoted to this piece, despite its canonic

importance. It is not hard to discover why. What is there to say about a piece of music

composed without intention? James Pritchett thoroughly analyzed the system by which

the piece was created, and discussed how rules can in fact be as much a compositional

decision as sculpting a harmonic progression. This is undeniably useful in an attempt to

understand the piece, but it largely ignores the actual experience of the music.

An analysis of any music must start from the context in which the piece was

written. It must start with the composer’s ideas, the composer’s intentions, (or

nonintentions) as a basis. From these clues, the tools for analysis may be inferred. In a

sonata, the return of the tonic key is a momentous moment in the music; therefore it

becomes a keystone of the so-called sonata form. What is the parallel in Music of

Changes? If we find a handful of major triads, an urligne, and an abundance of the set

{0,1,4}, what have we discovered?

This piece is based on nonintention, on removing the ego from the compositional

process (or at least, the score-creation process). An analysis attempts to explain the

music, to get at the stuff of its experience. Cage very purposefully eliminates any chance

of imposing meaning on the sounds he creates. Therefore, what is there to talk about?

What is there to seek? Shall we take the pieces at their silhouette or look for a stronger

flashlight to expose the details?

4

It is a largely question of vocabulary. It would be difficult to explain a Wagner

tuba to someone with no knowledge of brass instruments. How then can we explain a

new musical system based on noncontinuity and “letting sounds be sounds” with a

language of linearity and development? A new way of speaking is called for, a way of

discourse that results in greater understanding of the workings of the music.

Therefore, I create a system for analysis. I craft thought aggregates. I compose

these thoughts, just as Cage’s musical fragments are composed. I approach the piece

from many aspects, looking at the score, reading previous scholarship, listening to

recordings, and drafting my thoughts. The content of this analysis does not differ from

the content of any other theoretical writings; only the method of its assembly is different.

By entering an analytical system bound by chance itself, insight can be gained

about the nature of chance and how it operates within the boundaries created by Cage in

Music of Changes.

What follows is a description of how this analysis was constructed:

Three charts of 64 though aggregates were created.

The thoughts were broken into durational classifications: short, medium, long.

The charts were filled with 32 thought aggregates (the odd numbers) and

“silences”. In a traditional analysis, those thoughts over which the author has no control

are the quoted pieces of previous scholarship. As Cage thought of silence as those

sounds over which he had no control, it seems an easy transformation to consider quotes

as “silences.”

Each of these charts could be mobile (a thought being removed from the charts

after its use) or immobile (thoughts remaining in the charts to be reused); this

classification was subject to change upon every structural point.

To obtain an I Ching number (which was done over 400 times), three coins are

tossed six times. This results in a numbered hexagram, which can be used as a sort of

fortuneteller, but Cage used for only ordering purposes.

To obtain a thought, an I Ching number was obtained and translated to the

following durational value: 1-21 = short, 22-47 = medium, 48-64 = long. With the

5

duration known, another I Ching number was matched to the corresponding cell number

(in which ever durational chart had been called for) and the contents copied and pasted

into the body of the paper.

The overall structure of this analysis is 2, 4, 6, 4, 2 (each number representing the

number of thoughts per paragraph). This is also the structure of the overall analysis, with

the five parts forming the same proportion.

An I Ching number can be in the process of changing – this is indicated by a line

or broken line with a circle. When this is the case two numbers result. In such a case, the

first thought transforms into the second. As Cage left himself some small control after

the coins had finished their work, so do I leave myself this small window of control over

the thoughts: When a changing number causes one thought to morph to another I have no

predetermined way of doing so; rather, a smooth transition point is sought to preserve

proper grammatical syntax, and artistic poignancy.

There is no way I could have replicated the exact procedure that Cage used. Even

if his exact methods were known, our mediums are different. There is no one to one

corollary between his charts and mine. I have no tempo changes, nor dynamics, as there

is no way for me to control the speed in which you read, nor the loudness. Rather, my

essay is a brother in attitude, not DNA.

As fully one half of the elements in the charts are quotes, (this is a rather large

amount proportionately, but I felt it necessary to coincide with Cage’s treatment of

silence) citation becomes extremely interruptive to the flow of the essay. I chose to deal

with this by italicizing any of Cage’s words (of which there are many) and cite them all

in the bibliography (Cage’s statements can be found repeatedly throughout his output of

writings, so an exact citation is unnecessary).

A possibility I resisted was the use of word processing tricks as chartable

phenomena. I could create a chart of fonts, font size, and other aspects like underlining,

bold, strikethrough… I did not do this because I wanted the end result to be cohesive and

poignant. I am only leaving the connections of my thoughts to chance and I do not wish

the paper to convey a sensationalism which would immediately cause its disregard as

trivial or dada.

6

I therefore turn the analysis over to the I Ching to see what it will teach me.

Perhaps an idea will emerge, I have no idea whether or not one will. Perhaps I may hear,

“but knowledge of procedure should not preclude understanding of content!” To this I

reply, “Of what content do you speak?” There is no inherent meaning to the following

analysis, how could there be when it speaks of a music that asserts the same? There is no

purpose, no conclusion of such academic pursuits (except perhaps the one that occurs to

you).

7

I A composition of any music must understand the context in which the sounds can

be observed in one way or another. A method for the overall structure is needed, how

else could I determine the ending? A macro-micro structure seems to miss completely

the point of the music Cage was creating.

Consider, can any sounds actually be "controlled"? It is the connections that Cage

leaves as belonging together. We could perhaps vibrate the string, but by the time the

rarefaction has reached the ear how many distortions have been introduced by

fluctuations in air pressure, by the very process of breathing. The only conclusion

possible: The quarter was faulty. This play, however, is an affirmation of life - not an

attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply

for the theorist to reconcile the thought being altered with those preceding it.

What can we ever analyze? Of 100 coins flipped, the results were exactly even,

this seems remarkable, and it goes against my previously held contentions. The only

conclusion possible: The quarter was faulty. Chance operations soak up patterns like a

sponge, this is beside the point. Discussing meaning in music suggests that there is no

inherent purpose to it. Meaning purports that music is separate from life, instead of

talking about it, to do it; instead of discussing it, to act it. Music of changes is a piece for

piano in four parts. Music of chances seems to be figure 1. Music is actually of life,

like a sponge filling with water.

Consider the sound of an air conditioner you had forgotten and then I'm finished.

"Now that things are so simple”1, is serious music is serious enough? "The next

1 Morton Feldman, quoted in Cage, John. Silence. (Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1961), 72.

8

difficulty is”2 to make a musical composition the continuity of which is free of individual

taste and memory." The heart of the piece seems to be a more logical name.

Figure 1 – Cage, Music of Changes, prefatory note.

"His performances of Music of Changes led Tudor to two decisive insights about

musical time and space in the work: 'I was in a different musical atmosphere' we would

recall, 'I was watching time, rather than experiencing it. That difference”3 “remains a

challenging, unusual listening experience”4 There could be up to eight layers sounding

simultaneously, and each of these layers could be a cluster of what I find as especially

changing.

2 Schliermacher, Steffan, Liner notes: Music of Changes. (Detmold: Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm, 1998). 3 Holzaepfel, John. The Cambridge Companion to Cage. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006). 4 Schliermacher, Steffan, Liner notes: Music of Changes.

9

II

At the root of all this is the idea that this work is a thing separate from the rest of

life, which is not the case. An ear is a connection that Cage leaves to the I Ching. Now

life expresses itself within and through structure. Does silence have a corollary in

words? Are there any phenomena of reading which means nothing as a thing?

"An incredibly liberating effect emanated from Cage's"5 groups of 12, 20, 27, 27,

20, and 12.5 beats. My intention has been, often, to say what I had to say in a way that

would exemplify it; that would conceivably, permit the listener to experience “phrases of

low density, the listener attends to the contours of individual events; during periods of

high density, the ears are overloaded, the events become unfocused, and the impression is

predominantly textural"6 Music of Changes does not operate in the same world as

Heinrich Shenker (only we are all poets and everything is an omen). "There exists an

infinite completely non-dual space of unique but interconnected sounds"7 about life. This

must be what Cage was really getting at with Figure 2.

To analyze is to collect information from diverse and exhaustive sources, and then

find the ways in which that data connects, the ways in which it works together. Cage

may have been trying to emulate the aesthetic of a harmony based on lucky experience.

This piece is based on nonintention, but does not hold up to careful scrutiny. “Chance

and Chance alone has a message for us. Everything that occurs out of necessity,

everything expected, repeated day in and day out, is mute. Only chance can speak to us.

We read its message much as gypsies read the images made by coffee grounds at the

bottom of a cup.”8 The function of the performer in the case of the Music of Changes is

5 Oehlschlagel, Reinhard, “In Spite of Hell and High Water”, Liner notes: Music of Changes. Detmold: Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm, 1998 6 Pritchett, James. The Music of John Cage. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 88. 7 Pritchet, The Music of John Cage, 77. 8 Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. (New York: Harper & Row, 1984), 48.

10

Figure 2 - Music Of Changes, sound chart 29

that of a contractor. I know nothing, it is a pleasure. And now, Just the same only

somewhat as though you had your feet a little off the ground. The first rhythmic division

which interested me (not at all anymore) is that which is called mobility - immobility. 9 Pritchett, The Music of John Cage. 80.

11

Music of changes is a piece for piano in four parts in the rhythmic structure 3, 5, 6 3/4, 6

3/4, 5, 3 1/8 expressed in changing tempi. The composing means involved chance

operations derived from the I Ching, the Chinese book of changes, a detailed description

of which is given in Silence (Wesleyan University Press). The music of changes is an

object more inhuman than human, or complex situations in time. "Each event in music of

changes "10 is not about chance, it is rather through chance that the music can be met.

"Hence, this occurrence of sound 45 skips the first note,”11 read in reference to a chart of

the numbers 1 to 64, a visible manifestation of an invisible nothing. "There exists and

infinite completely non-dual space of unique but interconnected sounds."12 “We already

know how the piece is constructed, so13" “they would serve an analysis of the temporal

levels and layers."14 One of these uses is very apt to be a pitfall to real hearing. Who

makes the rules purposefully composed? "There exists a” 15 system of composing where

the composer is presented with some limitation on what musical events can be

juxtaposed.

The piece is structural divided into units until we relinquish our control of it. The

attractiveness of the I Ching to Cage is not difficult to understand, “because it tempts us

to stop listening once we have found the relationship, the "overwhelming" connection."16

The mechanism by means of which the I Ching works “would insure combinations that

cage would never have considered himself."17 The heart of the piece lies in the sixty-four

hexagrams read in reference to a chart of the numbers 1 to 64. Value judgments are not

in the nature of this work either as regards composition, or “the systematic basis of

chance operations."18 Who am I to decide which sentences belong together, which notes

10 Pritchett, The Music of John Cage, 82. 11 Pritchett, James. The development of chance techniques in the music of John Cage: 1950-1956. (Thesis (Ph. D.)--New York University, 1988), 146 12 Pritchet, The Music of John Cage, 77. 13 Biggs, Chris. Interview by Author, Kansas City, MO. April 20, 2007. 14 Schliermacher, Steffan, Liner notes: Music of Changes. 15 Pritchet, The Music of John Cage, 77. 16 Haskins, Rob. Notes on Cage, Harmony, and Analysis. 71. 17 Pritchett, The Music of John Cage, 79. 18 Oehlschlagel, Reinhard, “In Spite of Hell and High Water”.

12

will come to life if the form is not controlled but free and original? The compositions of

Webern seem to convey a much stronger sense of randomness, letting the thoughts

discover what they will and gleaning some genuine musical insight from this process.

We could perhaps vibrate the string as regards either composition, performance, or

listening.

I would assume that relations would exist between sounds as they would exist

between people; without it life would not last out the instant. "Thank you for the Music

of Changes. Which I liked a lot….I was absolutely charmed by this"19climate suitable

for radical experimentation. Music of changes is a piece for piano in four parts in the

rhythmic structure 3, 5, 6 3/4, 6 3/4, 5, 3 1/8 expressed of its own volition. I have come

to the conclusion that much can be learned about music by devoting oneself to the

mushroom, but the situation is more complex, for things also lead backwards in time.

III

“As we all know, analysis of a Cage chance composition must take into account

"the questions that are asked"20 to consider Cage's choices (in creating the rules for the

composition of Music of Changes) as the fundamental musical elements of the piece to be

analyzed. Meaning is the chance reconciliation of two separate entities; the others

maintain the previous status. What is, or seems to be, new in this music: a visible

manifestation of an invisible nothing. What brings about this unpredictability is the use

of the method established in the I Ching (book of Changes) for the obtaining of oracles;

that would conceivably, permit the listener to experience what I had to say rather than

just hear about it. Are these sentences independent? "There has to be some mechanism

within with it will operate."21 And then I saw one day that there was no incompatibility

19 Boulez, Piere. The Boulez-Cage Correspondence. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993) 133. 20 Haskins, Rob. Notes on Cage, Harmony, and Analysis, 74. 21 Pritchett, The Development of Chance Techniques in the Music of John Cage: 1950-1956, 6.

13

between mobility and immobility and life contains both: this is clearly not true (as

evidenced by table 4).

Music of Changes is a piece for piano of this experimental music. “It is therefore

quite probable that Cage wanted to write a complex piano composition…in order to be

able to hold his own"22 “with sixty-four different durations, since duration applied to

both sounds and silences"23 "This is but a general outline of"24 the following tempo

markings, 69, 176, 100, 100, 100, 58. Are these sentences, “new in this music?"25 Some

people think that I am enslaved by it, but I feel that I am liberated by it. The careful

reader will wonder, was any attempt given to actually discuss the more logical name. An

alternative to the durational chart practice of which I am using is: Take the durational I

Ching number to a chart of variable numbers of words for the thought, but the paradox of

randomness is still discernable in the experience of Music of Changes. Just because the

piece was composed with coins does not mean the elements are random. One can never

achieve pure chance, there are always some rules - this is why spring is better than

summer and politics are more interesting in November. The structure of the piece is the

macro/micro proportions, he leaves a window (though small) through which he can poke

and prod the sounds into the aesthetic vision for the piece, which he certainly had. On

the contrary, you must give the closest attention to “the act of composition, in the

interpretation itself, it does not play any role at all."26 We cannot understand change

until we refer to table 1. "There exists an infinite complete"27 "set of sound, duration,

and dynamic charts."28

22 Oehlschlagel, Reinhard, “In Spite of Hell and High Water”. 23 Pritchett, The Music of John Cage, 79. 24 Pritchett, The development of chance techniques in the music of John Cage: 1950-1956, 137. 25 Wolff, Christian quoted in: Cage, Silence, 68. 26 Schliermacher, Steffan, Liner notes: Music of Changes. 27 Pritchet, The Music of John Cage, 77. 28 Pritchett, The Music of John Cage, 84.

14

Perhaps there is no more to be said about a piece whose denouement is left to

chance than, "Cage had a lot of nerve."29 The brilliance (and perhaps the largest

misstep) of Cage's procedure is the use of 8 layers. The layers allow him some

compositional leeway after all the coins have been flipped - or is his message based on

the fact that you are so convinced? Listening to music makes the rules of renaissance

counterpoint (or any other system of composing where the composer is presented with

some limitation on what musical events can be juxtaposed). Nothing has been said, but

the situation is more complex, for things also lead backwards in time. "To take [my] own

ideas and alter them,"30 I do not wish blamed on Zen. Meaning is the lucky line that

points from abstraction to units of 118.5 beats. I would assume that relations would exist

between sounds as they would exist between people and table 1. This play, however, is

an affirmation of life - not an attempt to bring order out of chaos, not to suggest

improvements in creation, but simply “another kind of analysis for the music that Cage

composed after turning to chance. This type of analysis is limited to reconstructing,

insofar as possible, the compositional process chosen for a piece.”31 The I Ching does

not have much to do with the “the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York in 1952.”32 The D

minor chord on the last sixteenth of mm. 127, book 2, makes sense in succession.

Chance operations soak up patterns like a sponge filling with water; enable him to see

that originality is necessary. "Chance in music cannot simply "happen": there has to be

some mechanism within which it”33 contains the following tempo markings: 69, 176,

100, 100, 100, 58. What we need, was in these respects useful. How a person sculpts

change defines whom that person is and what their music has to do with sound. My head

wants to be horribly misunderstood. Every word of this analysis is the closest attention

to everything. No silence exists that is not pregnant with chance, but get lucky anyway.

29 Schleiermacher, Liner notes: Music of Changes. 30 Pritchett, The Music of John Cage, 83 31 Haskins, Rob. Notes on Cage, Harmony, and Analysis, 66. 32 Oehlschlagel, Reinhard, “In Spite of Hell and High Water” 33 Pritchett, The Development of Chance Techniques in the Music of John Cage: 1950-1956, 6.

15

"Instead, structure in Music of Changes serves solely to regulate the chance”34method

established in the I-Ching.

Chance, “realizing that any pattern or structure he may perceive in the chance-

composed score could just as likely be the result of fortune as of design, throws his hands

up in despair and declares that since the work was composed, "irrationally," it cannot be

subject to rational analytical discourse."35 It probably would have been 2 1/2

centimeters. Though still present, it becomes apparent that the score is a result of the

compositional process, which once initiated, runs its course (almost) without further

human manipulation. The relationship of rules to score can thus be compared to the

traditional relationship of score to performance. One quarter note “laid the first real

foundation of Cage's fame in Europe and caused shock among the ranks of serial

composers."36 Each something is a celebration of the nothing that “speaks by itself,

without being forced into a particular sort of continuity."37 This is a lecture which has to

relax and let go of the puzzle pieces, and let chance assemble them. The score is a result

of the compositional process, which once initiated, we musicologists have been unable,

due to conceptual or methodological problems, to handle."38 The first book consists of

three groupings of 118.5 beats, each broken into sub groups of Cage's all new rules. I am

quoting out of context, taking a sentence that was very thoughtfully given support,

evidence, and conclusion, and placing it among strangers in an uncomfortable

antechamber, as a case study to discuss what randomness, what chance, what meaning

has to do with sound. Music of changes is a piece for piano in four parts in the rhythmic

structure 3, 5, 6 3/4, 6 3/4, 5, 3 1/8 expressed in changing tempi, an odd number bringing

about a change, and even number maintaining the previous status. What we need is

chance continuity - a result of the compositional process, which once initiated, runs its

34 Pritchett, The Development of Chance Techniques in the Music of John Cage: 1950-1956, 156. 35 Pritchett, The Development of Chance Techniques in the Music of John Cage: 1950-1956, 7. 36 Oehlschlagel, Reinhard, “In Spite of Hell and High Water”. 37 Pritchett, The Music of John Cage, 88. 38 Pritchett, The Development of Chance Techniques in the Music of John Cage: 1950-1956, 5.

16

course (almost) without further human manipulation. Often in composing a piece of

music, a composer discovers the following paradox: In a truly random texture, patterns

(whether concrete or imagined) will leap out at the listener, therefore the composers

charge “is limited to reconstructing, insofar as possible, the compositional process chosen

for a piece."39

A mistake is beside the point, for once anything happens; it authentically is with

or without noises and repetitions. This is the usefulness of this analysis: "To take [my]

own ideas and alter them, producing a fresh and spontaneous world of [words]."40 What

the casual, non-coin-flipping listener cannot understand is that chance operations are no

more random than walking down the street. For what happened came about only

through these silences. These rules serve the composer (or the coin flipper) in creating a

musical instruction sheet (a score), which is from then on very determined, but at any

moment an idea may come along. Are these sentences the closest attention to everything?

IV

It is not poetry by reason of it's content or of its ambiguity, then what is the

purpose of this experimental music? "This play, however, is an affirmation of life - not

an attempt to bring order out of unknown neighbors? As these thoughts are composed,

one cannot help but notice certain thoughts that would go together nicely, while largely

ignoring the music created by them. We cannot understand change until we relinquish

our control of a matter of chance.

The idea of relation (the idea: 2) being absent, - like infinity - Cage reaches for it

but the farther he travels, the more road he sees still ahead. "Any useful compositional

method or technique should serve as"41 "the first real foundation of Cage's fame in

39 Haskins, Rob. Notes on Cage, Harmony, and Analysis, 66. 40 Pritchett, The Music of John Cage, 83. 41 Pritchett, The Music of John Cage 76.

17

Europe and caused shock among the ranks of serial composers,"42 but imitation can

never be exactly random. "What is, or seems to be, new"43 “with no history or influence

exerted on previous or subsequent incidents."44 “As we all know, analysis of a Cage

chance composition must take into account”45 that the human race is one person.

Essentially the question is: Do you live, or do you delve into its organism? In the Music

of Changes, Structure, Method, and the materials are all a good idea until the author has

to claim the finished product and add their name to its header. What we need is chance

continuity - a way for thought to allow itself to not only exist of their own volition, but to

co-exist with others that strengthen and embolden the more road he sees still ahead.

Book two contains five groups of 118.5 beats and 6.75 groups of these silences.

Cage's departure from the rules of composition doesn't necessarily give an annalist

permission to listen to the piece. Music can exist of its own volition “with no history or

influence exerted on previous or subsequent incidents"46 "In any case you cannot know

how much I agree with you,"47 " and durations were only the first step in the process -

one that was, indeed, wholly mechanical."48 I find myself savoring Cage's words more

than his sounds, his sounds I cast aside like necessary by products of the ways in which it

works together. Meaning is the chance reconciliation of two separate entities, (this is

clearly not true). A pitfall of this process is the thought that flipping coins creates a sense

of self which separates itself from what it considers to be the rest of life. It probably

would have been more beneficial to create all new rules. One wonders, then, what is the

role of the performer in Music of Changes? The realization of the rules has created a

score by understanding the ways coin fall. Cage's motivation was to "free" sounds - the

use of no-intention and no-continuity was a side effect of this desire. If the use of 42 Oehlschlagel, Reinhard, “In Spite of Hell and High Water”. 43 Wolff, Christian quoted in: Cage, Silence, 68. 44 Gena, Peter. “Didactics for John Cage: Scores from the Early 1950s.” http://www.petergena.com/didactics.html, (accessed April 17, 2007). 45 Haskins, Rob. Notes on Cage, Harmony, and Analysis, 74. 46 Gena, Peter. “Didactics for John Cage: Scores from the Early 1950s.” 47 Boulez, Piere. The Boulez-Cage Correspondence, 134 48 Pritchett, The Development of Chance Techniques in the Music of John Cage: 1950-1956, 150.

18

noncontinuity could maintain the previous status, the notes for the piece can never be

"wrong" (until we relinquish our control of them). "The charts of sounds, durations and

dynamics were Cage's definition of the"49 the purpose of this experimental music.

"This is but a general outline of the method used to compose Music of Changes,

however,"50 "a model of musical communication"51 alone is not a being. One does not

then make just any experiment by understanding the ways coin fall. "Any useful

compositional method or technique should serve as a means of emptying the mind of

thoughts that would exclude possibilities"52 and then organize them into a logical stream

of thoughts. The heart of the piece often becomes a prejudice. I would recommend not

listening to music at all which one no longer hears. The contents of each aggregate in the

sound chart can vary from a single note to a collection of dense chords (Can chance ever

be wrong?). But the situation is more complex, for things also lead backwards in time.

When a coin is flipped, the result is pure, impossible to influence with experience

and an equal number of elements. Will this thought make it, is beside the point. This

practice was replaced by the current one of three independent charts of thoughts of

varying lengths because altering the thoughts would present an opportunity for the

theorist to reconcile the thought being altered with those preceding it. By leaving the

connections to chance, we force the mind to forge new ways of examining the craft of

musical composition.

V

49 Pritchett, The Development of Chance Techniques in the Music of John Cage: 1950-1956, 153. 50 Pritchett, The Development of Chance Techniques in the Music of John Cage: 1950-1956, 137. 51 Pritchett, The Development of Chance Techniques in the Music of John Cage: 1950-1956, 6. 52 Pritchett, The Music of John Cage, 76.

19

Pritchett focuses on the rules Cage creates, while the assembly of the materials is

always being done. Now the fifth and last part, whatever happening being acceptable.

Pritchett logically forgoes all harmonic and melodic aspects of traditional

analysis, but he still uses traditional analytical syntax to discuss what has been done

before? Can we not analyze what has not yet happened? Value judgments are not in the

nature of this work either as regards composition, performance or figure 3.

20

Figure 3 – Cage, Music of Changes, Book 2, page 29.

The morphology of the rules has created a score, so the realization of the score is

now removed from the composer's hand by an additional metaphoric transformation.

21

Common practice theory has been based upon the assertions of harmony, melody, and

linearity as fundamental to understanding a composition; the theory that co-developed

was very appropriately linear: it develops ideas until you add the two other necessary

components: dynamic and duration.

Can music offer any insight into an equal number of elements? The purpose of

indeterminacy would seem to bring about this endeavor: substitute "thoughts" for

"sounds". “Cage clearly had a system for generating the durations of Music of

Changes,”53 which is in the union with similar-minded thoughts. Pritchett focuses on the

rules Cage creates, while largely ignoring the craft of musical composition. Common

practice theory has been based upon the assertions of harmony, melody, and linearity as

fundamental to understanding a composition; the theory that co-developed was very

appropriately linear: it develops ideas as the music does. Using chance operations seems

like a good idea. This is the danger of composing music: one cannot help but notice

patterns and highlight them.

Now the fifth and last incompatibility between mobility and immobility, and life

contains both. By structure was meant the division of the whole into parts. The purpose

of indeterminacy “gives a result not unlike that of a kaleidoscope."54 What we need is

chance continuity - a way for thought to allow itself to not only exist of its own volition,

but to co-exist into a passage playable by Tudor's two hands.

"It is not poetry by reason of it's content or of its ambiguity, but by reason of

allowing musical elements to offer an insight into life. That one sees that any moment an

idea may come along.

53 Pritchett, The Development of Chance Techniques in the Music of John Cage: 1950-1956, 5. 54 Thompson, Virgil quoted in: Pritchett, The Development of Chance Techniques in the Music of John Cage: 1950-1956, 153.

22

Epilogue: A Nonconclusion

The least successful aspect of this paper is the lack of continuity between

thoughts. This was, of course, unavoidable. Cage turned to a system of no-continuity

because he attempted to remove his ego from the compositional process, to let “sounds be

sounds.” After completion of such a paper, I wonder if there might not be a better way.

The lack of continuity from thought to thought, the dissolving of one thought to another,

and the superficial structure given to them has a very detrimental effect to each thought.

They are allowed to "be" but they lose a lot of their power, which comes from the union

with similar-minded thoughts. Is this not a similar drawback of the piece? The listener

has very little to hold onto. Humans are undeniably habitual and pattern-obsessed.

Therefore violating the need for cohesion is poetic, but ultimately boring and unhelpful.

The easiest, and potentially most dangerous criticism of the preceding analysis is:

this is not an analysis; it is a re-creation, or a commentary. This is the thought that

“nothing has been said.” A fundamental aspect of analysis is conclusion, and what could

have been concluded? While many conclusions are offered in the charts of thought, what

makes a conclusion strong is evidence and surrounding support. This regrettably did not

occur by chance, and the reader is left with little except perhaps a conclusion of no-

conclusion. A conclusion of no-conclusion does not mean there is no purpose to one’s

actions, rather it leaves the purpose up to those experiencing their results.

As the goal from the outset was to approach the piece from within it’s own

universe, one could rightly counter, “What is the point, the conclusion, of Music of

Changes?” And then we could speak of a certain aesthetic which Cage creates, or the

integration of eastern philosophy into western music, but none of these things speaks to

the fundamental musical experience: that of a listener. What conclusion can the listener

draw after a performance? Perhaps the careful listener will notice the return of material,

strewn as it is across eight layers. Perhaps the careful reader will notice the return of

various clauses, and how their changing, uncontrolled, juxtaposition creates insights that

the author could not have hoped for. While perhaps not logical from thought to thought,

the thoughts are certainly not devoid of meaning, of edification. Sometimes there is a

23

remarkable redefinition (or re-contextualization) of a statement, however, when a

statement assumes much more meaningful existence than the one originally envisioned

for it.

At the very least, the boundary between recreation and discussion has been

blurred. In what ways could a performance of a piece be an analysis? Can the performer

not highlight elements of sonata form while performing a sonata, thereby actually

communicating something about the piece? Isn’t playing a piece about the piece? What

other option could there be? Discussion and recreation are both methods of musical

discovery. Both start from an instruction sheet (the score) and from it, glean elements

that are more important than others. Once a hierarchy is determined, connections are

determined between especially relevant materials and the final product is presented.

In music, hearing the same material creates the formal experience of the piece.

Whereas a reader expects no such repetition-based form, rather looking for one of

development and story telling. This may have been the most convincing evidence under

the “poetic recreation” column. The avoidance of rhetorical practice leads to the

undeniable conclusion that this paper was not rhetoric. It is something new, and this is

perhaps its largest success. Despite the papers incomprehensible form and the lack of

meaningful continuity between thoughts, things were still said about the piece. This

seems a parallel achievement of Music of Changes. It is not completely successful as a

musical experience, but Cage’s realization that flipping coins could create music must

have been a revelation to him. Breaking the rules just to break the rules is not always

productive, but it is certainly eye opening as far as what the rules are good for and what

could be accomplished by heading in a new direction.

Perhaps chance would be better served to take from one sound to build another.

A theorist/composer could start with one thought, a ‘thesis’, and using chance, (to prevent

the theorist/composer’s will from taking over), deduce further supporting evidence and

musical development. Perhaps chance could determine how many words remain

unchanged, or from where the additional material would come.

24

In hindsight it appears what is really being discussed is the usefulness and

possibilities of chance as a tool for composers, and the Music of Changes is less the

subject, and more the entry point.

Chance is not random. When the coins are flipped, remarkable patterns emerge.

Patterns might not be the right word – perhaps tendencies. Cage is not creating a random

continuity; rather, he creates a continuity based on chance. Chance provides not

patternlessness, but patterns unlooked for, patterns which emerge on their own accord

without the composer’s ego-processes. No-continuity is still a kind of continuity.

Continuity is just the existence of one event followed by another. It can never be

eliminated, only manipulated and coaxed into doing interesting things.

My rules did not account for tense or questions, and the sentences had to be

modified to allow agreement. This could have been avoided instead by using charts of

different tense, charts of questions and exclamations. The use of durational charts was

ultimately unnecessary – the point of Cage’s similar practice was to introduce variety into

the music, and variety in writing does not come from the length of sentences. It also

presented an extra layer of complexity into the writing process that was time consuming

and did not add anything to the final product.

Much more useful than the selecting method employed, would be an ordering

method. This way all of the thoughts are guaranteed to be included, and the author is not

left scrambling for new material if the charts remain mobile, and there is not brilliant

unused material rotting in obscurity in an .xls file.

Other things to take from this paper: the irregular obedience of chance, the

foolishness of meaning, the kinship of control and no-control. The use of chance in music

and writing has an enormous upside, but it must be used carefully and developed properly

while maintaining stylistic integrity and characteristic of the medium.

25

Bibliography

Antokletz, Elliot. Twentieth Century Music. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1992. Cage, John. A Year from Monday. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1967. Cage, John. Music of Changes. New York: Henmar Press, 1961. Cage, John. Silence. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1961. Cage, John. Writer. New York: First Cooper Square Press, 2000. Carass, Tracy and Cole Gagne. Soundpieces: Interviews with American

Composers. New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1982. Covell, Grant Chu. "1951 and Cage’s Music of Changes." La Folia: April, 2006

http://www.lafolia.com/archive/covell/covell200604cage1951.html, (accessed April 23, 2007).

Duckworth, William. Talking Music. New York: Schirmer Books, 1995. Gena, Peter. “Didactics for John Cage: Scores from the Early 1950s”.

http://www.petergena.com/didactics.html, (accessed April 17, 2007). Haskins, Rob. “Notes on Cage, Harmony, and Analysis.”

http://www.8ung.at/fzmw/2003/2003_6.htm, (accessed April 15, 2007). Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. New York: Harper & Row,

1984. Nattiez, Jean Jacques ed., Pierre Boulez, John Cage. The Boulez-Cage

correspondence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Nicholls, David, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Cage. New York: Cambridge

University Press, 2006.

Oehlschlagel, Reinhard. “In Spite of Hell and High Water”, Liner notes: Music of Changes. Detmold: Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm, 1998.

Pritchett, James. The Music of John Cage. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press, 1993. Pritchett, James. The development of chance techniques in the music of John

Cage: 1950-1956. Thesis (Ph. D.)--New York University, 1988.

Schleiermacher, Steffen. Liner notes: Music of Changes. Detmold: Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm, 1998.