Part 9 Summary and Analysis

"Indeterminacy" In his introduction, the author describes how a friend and fellow composer urged him to create a lecture solely out of anecdotal material, and how he (the author) embraced the idea as an example and/or manifestation of his belief in the principle of randomness. He then relates how over the years he wrote over ninety anecdotes (to be mixed and matched as the impulse took him) and how the anecdotes at the end of each section of this publication are taken from his collection. Finally, he reveals that each anecdote is designed to be read in one minute, that they are evocative of his belief that everything is related, and that the complexity of that relationship "is more evident when it is not oversimplified by an idea of relationship in one person's mind."

Several anecdotes relate to the author's...