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The Effects Of Minimalism/Indeterminacy On The Merce Cunningham And John Cage Collaboration, Janelle M. Morrison

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Minimalism is movement in both the visual and performing arts that strive to focus attention on the subject as an object, reducing its historical and expressive content to a bare minimum or art without meaning. John Cage’s music stems from the idea of minimalism and expands itself into what he calls “indeterminacy.” Indeterminacy means that chance operations will produce the score and performer’s choices. Through Cage’s study of Zen he learned about The Book of Change, I Ching. Using his charts, based on this book and the toss of three coins, Cage could layout the format of his compositions. Merce …