INDETERMINACY

Incidentally the title of John Cage 's first solo record (1957), this term refers to music composed with the assistance of chance operations—such as throwing dice in order to make decisions, observing the imperfections in paper to discover notes on staves, or using random tables—and to the use of musical instructions likely to produce radically unpredictable results. In the latter case, the composer may provide only generalized directions; or collections of notes that may be played in...