I derived the method I use
for writing music by tossing coins from the method used in the
Book of Changes for obtaining oracles. The method itself
is fairly complicated to describe and I shall not do
that now. If you are interested you can read
a detailed des-cription of it that will appear in the forthcoming
issue of Trans/formations . Suffice it to say that
tables are arranged re-ferring to tempi, the number
of superimpositions , that is to say, number of things that can go on at
once, sounds and silences, durations, loudnesses and accents.
At a given instant half of the tables are mobile and
half of them immobile. Mobile means: if that ele-
ment is tossed, it acts, but disappears .
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John Cage