Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Andrew Culver <>]

David,

ic is a simulation of the three coin tossing method. Three coins, tossed six 
times, producing changing or unchanging broken or unbroken lines, rendering 
one of 64 possible original hexagrams, and possibly an additional changing 
hexagram also one of 64.

You can use ic, and learn more about how it works (read “How”) here: 
https://anarchicharmony.org/IChing/index.html

It’s the method I used before working with John, and before I “put it on the 
computer” (JC phrase!), i.e. when I did it by hand for my own purposes, 
divinational or compositional. (BTW, I consulted the I Ching about whether I 
should move to New York and offer to work with John, one of the more 
momentous questions I ever asked it. The reply was convincing.)

When I arrived (1980) he was using printouts from a program written at Bell 
Labs. I don’t know what method that program simulated.

Others on this list will know better than I what method he used in the early 
days before any computers were involved, but I always assumed (or perhaps 
heard in passing) that it was the three coin method.

Peace (war is obsolete)

Andrew Culver




> On Mar 22, 2022, at 5:26 PM, David Bellows <> wrote:
> 
> I've been wondering if anyone knows how Cage generated his I Ching
> results. According to Wikipedia, there are many methods like the one
> coin, three coin, and yarrow stalks methods.
> 
> From things I vaguely recall from reading Cage, it seems that when he
> did it manually he might have used the 3 coin method (which would have
> worked with Music of Changes.)
> 
> So I'm also wondering about the software that was written for him and
> whether it just generated numbers between 1 and 64 or if it simulated
> one of the other methods like the 3 coin method.
> 
> I don't know if Andrew Culver still pays attention to this list, but
> he/you might know?
> 
> Thanks everyone for any ideas!
> 
> Dave Bellows.
> https://www.platonicmusicengine.com