Part 3 Summary and Analysis

The author's introduction portrays these two essays as being highly technical in nature.

"Composition: To Describe the Process of Composition Used in 'Music of Changes' and 'Imaginary Landscape No. 4'" In this lecture, the author describes (in considerable detail) the process by which he created this piece of music scored for twelve radios. As he portrays it, the process was simultaneously mathematical (based on careful graphing) and completely random (the result of coins tossed in the manner of the I-Ching—see "Objects/Places").

"Composition: To Describe the Process of Composition Used in 'Music for Piano." In this lecture, the author describes how this piece was created, a process involving layers of paper and making musical notation where flaws overlap, and random generation (again through the I-Ching like tossing of coins) of tone, quality of striking, pitch, and the order in...