Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Stefano Pocci <>]

Hi, I am bit late at this reply, but I wanted to thank both Rod and Ninh 
for their answers.

I recently did a short talk about probability and I included a brief 
description of the I-Ching, quoting Jung's brilliant foreword.
No need to say, the reactions to this divination text were numerous 
though mostly tainted with prejudice that such a practice of randomness 
seems to inspire.
I also insisted on the point of making good questions, but it sounded 
more like a joke while I was trying to be serious :)

Thanks again,
Stefano


On 30.01.2017 20:34, Rod Stasick wrote:
> When faced with choices, you have a number of them -
> from 2 (“yes” or “no,” for instance) on up. So, this means
> that the I-Ching can be used to separate potential answers
> into “chunks” of possibilities. They do not have to be equally
> divisible (1-32 for “yes” and 33-64 for “no”). Having 5 choices,
> you can toss 4 hexagrams: for example: 24 / 19  / 39  / 48
> and you would have 5 divisional possibilities available:
> 1-18 / 19-23 / 24-38 / 39-47 / 48-64 that you would use
> for the 5 different possibilities.
>
> If you had a question that was directed at more than 64
> potential possibilities (like the 628 pages of our Western I-Ching:
> Finnegans Wake), then you could group them into chunks of possibilities
> (or you could just use the 17 chapters of FW as divisions) and so on.
>
> Yes, once you begin working in this way, you could understand how
> time-consuming all of this could be and so a faster way -
> with computer print-outs - could be (and were) used.
>
> Which brings me to the devotion that he had to this
> text-as-numerical-Oracle that so baffled me then and still does now.
> As a text of interpretation, it could be wonderful, but why use such an
> incredibly closed-system for numerical production?
> It wasn’t an aversion to, for instance, scientifically obtainable
> results coming from less-than-spiritual or philosophical areas
> because, as we know, he had no problems with computer printouts
> (for HPSCHD too). Even those printouts were unreliable for a time in
> the early 70’s when he discovered, after using them for various pieces -
> music and texts over a period of about 4 or 5 years - that the printouts
> were repeating themselves and that these resulting pieces weren't as
> random as they initially were thought to be.
>
> Pretty much his only answer to this way of getting numerical results really
> boiled down to devotion to a text that made such an impact on his life.
>
>
> Political curren(t)cy:
>
> Finnegans Wake, Page 46:
>
> "Small wonder He'll Cheat E'erawan our local lads nicknamed him…
> … So snug he was in his hotel premises sumptuous
> But soon we'll bonfire all his trash, tricks and trumpery…”
>
> Rod


--

Stefano

"Like a pizza in the rain, no one wants to take you home, but I love you just the 
same."