Metodo

International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Series | Book | Chapter

226956

A statistical approach to the global structure of John Cage's number piece $${five}^5$$

Alexandre Popoff

pp. 231-236

Abstract

The Number Pieces are a body of late works composed by John Cage using particular temporal structures called time-brackets. In a Number Piece with multiple performers, the superposition of the various parts, each containing time-brackets, creates an everchanging polyphonic work whose structure cannot be determined in advance. We provide here a statistical study of the global structure of the Number Piece (Five^5) in terms of probabilities of occurence of the various possible set classes, completed by the use of various measures from information theory.

Publication details

Published in:

Collins Tom, Meredith David, Volk Anja (2015) Mathematics and computation in music: 5th international conference, MCM 2015, London, UK, June 22-25, 2015. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 231-236

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-20603-5_24

Full citation:

Popoff Alexandre (2015) „A statistical approach to the global structure of John Cage's number piece $${five}^5$$“, In: T. Collins, D. Meredith & A. Volk (eds.), Mathematics and computation in music, Dordrecht, Springer, 231–236.