Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[AHF <>]

David:

Define “algorithmic composer” or “algorithmic composition”.

(Since everything a computer can compute boils down to an algorithm, I need 
to know if you want to know more than: a computer was involved).

Andrew Culver


> On Mar 17, 2020, at 9:12 PM, David Bellows <> wrote:
> 
> Hello everyone,
> 
> I have some questions based on thinking about Cage as an algorithmic
> composer. I don't mean that in any stylistic sense but only in the
> literal sense where he would create a system, insert chance derived
> numbers, and a piece of music would be the result. I get that for the
> most part he did this by hand but I think pieces like "Music of
> Changes" would still qualify as algorithmic anyway. And of course
> later in his career he did use computers to help out with at least
> some aspects of the compositional process.
> 
> Given the above, my question is, did he ever use the same algorithmic
> system more than once to generate other versions of a piece for
> publication? And which ones?
> 
> BONUS Question:
> 
> I know there are some people on this list who knew Cage so maybe
> there's a chance this topic came up. Did Cage ever consider publishing
> the process for any of these algorithmic pieces instead of, or in
> addition to, the published version? In other words, not just publishing
> the sheet music but publishing the exact process he used so that other
> people could generate their own versions. If he did ever discuss this
> what was the result?
> 
> I know that we can, with some success, perhaps recreate some of his
> processes, but from what I've seen there's usually quite a bit of
> speculation involved.
> 
> Any insights into this are appreciated.
> 
> Sincerely,
> Dave Bellows
> www.platonicmusicengine.com