Taking the chance: a descriptive study of a creative work that utilizes chance and indeterminacy whilst maintaining form

This paper is a descriptive study of the creation of a new work that used practice-based and practice-led methodology, chance, indeterminacy, Malaysian folksong, Hindustani Raga, birdsong and philosophy to guide its creation, its coming into being and its performance realization. The paper also addresses the main problem encountered in its creation, which was how to maintain form whilst using indeterminacy. The composition which was the focus of the study employed indeterminacy and chance in the approximation of the performance realisations and interpretations of the notation. Each of the four main elements of the composition was created separately and incorporated a mode of limited transposition, Hindustani Raga, Kalimantan folk-tune and Malaysian avian motifs. In the context of the emphasis of the John Cage 101 International Conference, the composition attempted to explore concepts of space and time, chance and indeterminacy and the Cagean notion that “There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear.” (Cage, 1961)