Chance vs. Structure

Throughout the collection, the author expresses his belief that random chance can, does, and should play a role in the act of artistic creation. In his experience, that act is musical composition, but he also refers to the active presence/manifestation of the principle in terms of choreography and painting. Both the principle and the practice, he repeatedly suggests are manifestations of an essential force of creation, and a perspective on that force (see "Manifestations of Buddhism," below). In other words, he believes randomness and chaos are as actively functional in the universe and in the life of the human individual as order and structure and should therefore be accepted, if not embraced, as a fundamental aspect of existence.

The author argues that the act of creating music (and, by implication, the act of creation in general) has for too long been defined by principles of...