Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[David Bellows <>]

Andrew,

Thank you very much for the information! Your personal story about
consulting the I Ching about moving to NY is really amazing -- thanks
for sharing.

Given that "Music of Changes" was built on the idea of the changing
lines, it seems reasonable to assume that Cage used the 3 coin method.
Hopefully someone will know for sure.

Thanks again,
Dave Bellows

On Tue, Mar 22, 2022 at 7:05 PM Andrew Culver
<> wrote:
>
> 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 Peace (war is obsolete)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
>