MUSIC

Can chance be used to innovate musical performance and composition? 🎵

We often think of composing or performing as massive tasks that require meticulous detail and a lot of work. But what if we could leave it all up to chance? Is this lazy or innovative? Many famous composers, such as John Cage and Terry Riley, believed that incorporating chance into composition and performance was an interesting musical avenue to explore.

💡 Things to consider

• Graphic Scores: Graphic scores are a form of notation (like sheet music or tab). They emerged in the 1950s when composers, such as John Cage, began experimenting with new sounds that couldn't be expressed using traditional forms of notation. To solve this problem, composers developed a new way of visualizing their music. Graphic scores differ greatly from traditional scores, as they use a variety of images and symbols to guide the performer on what to play. This introduces an element of chance, as the images inspire what is played but don't dictate exactly what to do, unlike standard notation. Think about how you might perform the graphic scores below!

  

  You can listen to a performance of this in the ‘Find out more’ section 😉 

  

• Chance Composition: You might hear this referred to as aleatoric music, but it’s just a fancier term for the same thing! This is when elements of composition are left up to chance. For example, the composition technique Birds on the Wires uses how birds naturally land on telephone wires to dictate the notes the composer uses. To learn more about how this composition works, check out the “Find Out More” section (it’s under 2 minutes long!). You could try some chance music composition yourself! Assign a different musical note (C, G, D, A, E, and C up the octave) to the 6 numbers on a dice. Roll it a few times and experiment with playing the notes in the order it gives you!

  

  Pretty cool stuff 😎 

• Chance Performance: This is when chance is built into a musical performance. Of course, there is always some element of chance in performances (you never know when you might play a wrong note or need to sneeze 🤧). However, chance music involves deliberately incorporating an element of chance into the performance. For example, Terry Riley’s In C is made up of 53 “cells,” each of which is repeated by the orchestra members as many times as they choose. This means that every performance is different. Check out the music below and listen to it in the “Find Out More” section.

  

  In C by Terry Riley

🔎 Find out more

• Graphic scores (listen)

• Graphic scores (learn)

• Chance composition (listen and learn)

• Chance performance (listen)

🍒 The cherry on top

• 🔬 Simplifying Quantum Physics: Quantum Physics is hard. Like seriously hard. Even university students shiver at the thought of it. Luckily, this video by Domain of Science does a good job at breaking it down, with great visuals. Especially useful if you like Physics.

• 🏛️ The Art of Classical Greece: This Metropolitan Museum of Art essay explores the artistic achievements of Classical Greece (ca. 480–323 B.C.), a period marked by creativity in sculpture, architecture, and pottery.Discover how ideals of harmony and proportion (as well as wars) shaped some of the most iconic works of Western art. Great if you like Classics, History, or Art!

• 💁‍♀️ Gadgets for Girlies: This The Atlantic article explores how TikTok has fuelled a resurgence of high-tech personal care gadgets, with Dyson’s Airwrap leading the charge. From $600 hair tools to affordable dupes, the platform has turned these devices into viral must-haves, blending technology, beauty, and social media trends. Interesting for those interested in Sociology, Marketing, and Culture.

👀 Keep your eyes peeled for…

• 18th March

  • Oxford Chemistry Workshop

  • Sheffield Maths Taster Session

  • UEA MFL Taster Session

• 19th March

  • Sheffield Social Sciences Taster Session

  • UEA Accounting Taster Session

  • UEA Biology Taster Session

• 20th March

  • Sheffield East Asian Studies Taster Session

  • St Anne’s College Supercurricular Club: History and Climate Change

  • UEA Geography/Environmental Studies Taster Session

• 21st March

  • Cambridge Theology, Religion and Philosophy of Religion Open Day

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