[sdiy] Re: [AH] Chance music - more

[Les Mizzell]

> To answer your question, no -- the chance elements in a chance piece needn't
> come from the physical world, they can be generated by any means. But they
> SHOULD be determined from a defined process - that's the key.

I so really wish I had a recording of my "most famous" chance piece, 
which I've discussed before, I just forget where....

We used a small orchestra of around 20 players, and my co-conspirator 
and I had a transparency of a black piece of orchestral score made for 
us. This was placed on an overhead projector and projected onto a screen 
where both the players and audience could clearly see it.  The "score" 
paper was surrounded by glass on all four sides, so what you ended up 
with looked sorta like an aquarium with the score paper for the bottom.

When the piece was ready to commence, we released two crickets, a 
millipede, several "rolly-polly" bugs, a beetle or two and a caterpillar 
onto the 'score'.

The one moment I remember that was really great was when the caterpillar 
crawled over onto the oboe staff and one of the rolly-polly bugs 
"counterpointed" between the other winds and the 1st violin while the 
millipede ambled back an forth between the cello and bass.

Schoenberg would have been proud....

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Les Mizzell