Revisiting Cagean Composition Methodology with a Modern Computational Implementation

The American experimental tradition in music emphasizes a process-oriented – rather than goal-oriented – composition style. According to this tradition, the composition process is considered an experiment beginning with a problem resolved by the composer. The noted experimental composer John Cage believed that the artist’s role in composition should be one of coexistence, as opposed to the traditional view of directly controlling the process. Consequently, Cage developed methods of composing that upheld this philosophy by utilizing musical charts and the I Ching, also known as the Chinese Book of Changes. This project investigates these methods and models them via an interactive computer system to explore the use of modern interfaces in experimental composition.