User:Lbattich/George Brecht Notebooks

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From:

George Brecht - Notebooks I, II, III

Published by Wallther Konig, Koln, 1991

Facsimiles of Brecht's notebooks from John Cage's class during 1958-59. link



"I can rationalize the use of random numbers, but I cannot rationalize this strangenes." (Brecht on the work of Duchamp)

From "The Artificial Crowd"

Contents of pack of 3 of "Word fusion" project: "Randomly selected word sequences from random books on my shelf."

Electronic Music: "Music composed for the loud-speaker."


"A light-sound piece in which the lights and sounds are relatively independent."

"A set of:

  • signal cards
  • amplitude cards
  • duration cards
  • delay cards
  • sound source cards

These are distributed at random, independently, then juxtapopsed."


"Hang words in a room. A room poem."

"If chance implies uncertainty, what are we uncertain about?

1) Order of the elements (automatic)

2) Length of the piece (a function of 1. above). Is a function of a chance process always a change process?"


"Order in a musical composition:




From [Water Yam], Lebeer-Hossmann re-edition, 1986.

Impossible effort

Do 1.

Do 2.

-23.7.1958