非确定性作曲与非线性程序（上）
A GOOD CHANCE OF MUSIC_part 1: indeterministic composition and non linear procedures

I would like to quote two extracts from John Cage, he says: “silence is not the same as no sound” and “I compose music to hear things I have not heard before”. Those words illustrate an attitude that John Cage looks upon music. It's extraordinarily important and this notion has a significant influence over John Cage. It is not merely a good chance to know John Cage, but also a good chance of music!

John age developed a notational system called "time brackets." Each performer performs his music in a strict order, but the actual start-and stop-times for each event vary. While the time bracket system ensured that the total time for a performance would always remain the same, it allowed flexibility to the performers in the spirit of Cage's indeterminate aesthetic.

I know about "time brackets from the lecture and I would like to use it in my own piece. The "time brackets" broke an pattern of traditional music notation, for example, you can play a note at 0'00" to 0'45"or you can play it at 0'30" to 1'15", which means that perform is kind of freedom that you want to follow your heart. There is a lot space for performer to play music belonging to him.

After the lecture, I have done some research. I found he uses a concept of “I Ching” to write a piece called 4'33". The three movements of which are performed without a single note being played. The content of the composition is meant to be perceived as the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is performed, rather than merely as four minutes and thirty three seconds of silence, and the piece became one of the most controversial compositions of the twentieth century. Another famous creation of Cage's is the Prepared Piano (a piano with its sound altered by placing various objects in the strings), for which he wrote numerous dance-related works and a few concert pieces, the best known of which is Sonatas and Interludes.