Author(s): DENIZ DOGAN*
John Cage, one of the most important composers of the twentieth century, characterized indeterminacy in music as the performance of a work in significantly different ways. According to the composer, indeterminacy exists in two states: the uncertainty of the composition and the uncertainty of the performer. In the 1950s, he abandoned the use of traditional music notation and emerged a system of graphic notation in which he could use the space on the score pages to represent the frequency of sound events. Graphic notation did not indicate traditional time and traditional sound devices, so the performer could not know exactly what the note was trying to affect. Thus the element of Indeterminacy in Cage's music emerged. Indeterminacy offered the performer the chance to interpret what is not obligatory, only what is offered, in contrast to what is given in traditional notation in works based on uncertainty. During his lectures in Darmstadt, the composer's stance against European music and conventionalism was noticed and caused him to receive negative reactions. But what Cage wanted to do was to make us think about new music, to question it. Neverthless, he tried to convey the innovative ideas and put forward for the liberation of music. The aim of this article is to examine Cage's element of Indeterminacy and its use in the composer's Works. Besides, it purposes to study the effects of the freedom of interpretation and exploration that graphic notation allows the performer in twentieth century music.
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