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Nous nous proposons dans la présente thèse d’examiner quelques conséquences de l´indétermination de l’œuvre musicale telle qu’elle a été proposée par John Cage dans ses propres œuvres. Nous discutons, dans le chapitre 1, plusieurs manières d'aborder l'ontologie de l'œuvre d'art dans la philosophie analytique. On constate une pression intrinsèque à l'exercice philosophique dans la direction d'une purification de la catégorie investiguée, menant à son tour à une hypostasie des catégories esthétiques historiques comme constituant l'œuvre d'art en général. L´oeuvre de Cage fonctionne comme un court-circuit dans la pratique préthéorique de composition et de manutention des œuvres en tant qu'identités reconnaissables, contrariant toute tentative d'ontologie qui présuppose ces identités pour la compréhension et la définition de l'œuvre. Dans les chapitres II e III nous tentons d'expliciter cette duplicité de l'œuvre de Cage - d'un coté, elle rompt radicalement avec les compréhensions philosophiques et pré-philosophiques des œuvres ; de l'autre, elle utilise la propre normativité de l'action présente dans la pratique sociale des concerts pour la constitution de cette rupture- à partir des apports d´une morphologie musicale inspirée de la philosophie de Wittgenstein. Enfin, nous offrons quelques réflexions sur la notion de nominalisme esthétique qui se dessine tout au long de la thèse. Ce nominalisme propose que chaque oeuvre soit responsable de ses propres conditions d´identification- ce qui pourrait ouvir la voie à une compréhension de l´indétermination comme une forme de composition critique. Cette hypothése est examinée par rapport à quelques idées d´Adorno. / We propose in the present thesis to identify some consequences of indeterminacy in musical works as it appears in the works of John Cage. The first chapter discusses various approaches to musical ontology in analytic philosophy. We detect a pressure that is intrinsic to the philosophical endeavor in the sense of a greater purification of concepts pertaining to the concerned category, which in turn lead to a hypostasis of historical aesthetic categories as constituents of the musical work as such. The work of Cage functions here as a short circuit in the common practice of maintaining recognizable identities in individual works, defying every model of ontology that presupposes these stable identities for the understanding and the definition of a work. In the chapters II and III we try to make clear this duplicity of the work of Cage- on one side, it breaks radically with pre- and philosophical concepts of the work of art; on the other side, it uses the normativity of action that is present in the social practices characterizing concert music in order to constitute itself as a rupture- through our engagement with a musical morphology inspired by the philosophy of Wittgenstein. In the end, we strive to offer some reflections on an aesthetic nominalism that is being outlined throughout the thesis. This nominalism proposes basically that each work is responsible for its own conditions of identification- an hypothesis that holds a possibility for the understanding of indeterminacy as a form of critical composition. This idea is then examined in relation to some ideas by Theodor Adorno.

abstract: This research will explore the compositional approaches of Henry Cowell and John Cage to reveal piano techniques for the practice and performance of selected works. The discussion will focus on Henry Cowell’s Three Irish Legends and Six Ings, as well as John Cage’s The Perilous Night. An important contribution of Cowell was to further the use of tone clusters, applied in his Three Irish Legends by playing directly with the forearm, fists, and palm. Cowell’s Six Ings employ rhythmic experimentation, particularly in the first, second, and sixth pieces. He also uses tone color to portray specific programmatic features. John Cage greatly advanced the prepared piano from its earliest beginnings, as evidenced significantly in The Perilous Night. The present study will include advice on piano preparation, along with performance challenges and solutions. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Music 2020

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Since 1950s, the concept of Kongwu (空無, Emptiness, Nothingness) has migrated into American-European experimental performances, including those of John Cage and Cage-influenced artists who developed Happenings, Fluxus, and intermedia practices. This research-through-practice investigates how the concept of kongwu, an intercultural synthesis of Chinese Daoism and Indian Buddhism, may shape the principles underlying performance making and how performance may, in turn, elucidate Kongwu way of making sense the world. The installation-performance, Poem without Language contemplates Kongwu’s distrust of language by undermining the communicative purpose of writing and responds to Nam June Paik’s approach to media language. The research practice, One Street, Three Persons, Different Narratives, and Different Memories responds to John Cage’s use of silence to revise time and measurement, and exposes the habit, how we experience the ‘present’ as accumulations of the past, and how we order experiences as a linear continuity, which we call ‘time’. My performance, … is Present suggests different definitions of the ‘meditative mind’ and ‘being-here-and-now’ and critiques the relationship between embodiment and identity in Marina Abramović’s construction of ‘suchness’. Three works offer one response to the poetics and politics of intercultural encounters in the context of Chan/Zen in intermedia performance. My research-through-practice sheds light on Kongwu way of experiencing, particularly Kongwu’s attitude towards language, time, and self.

This thesis discusses music's role in utopian community-building by using a case study of a specific composer, Pauline Oliveros, who believed her work could provide a positive "pathway to the future" resembling other utopian visions. The questions of utopian intent, potential, and method are explored through an analysis of Oliveros's untraditional scores, as well as an exploration of Oliveros's writings and secondary accounts from members of the Deep Listening community. This document explores Oliveros's utopian beliefs and practices and outlines important aspects of her utopian vision as they relate to three major utopian models: the traditional "end-state" model, the anarchical model, and the postmodern "method" utopian model. Oliveros exhibits all three models within her work, although this thesis argues that she is, for the most part, a method utopian. While her ceremonial group improvisations like Link/Bonn Feier resemble anarchical works by John Cage, they exhibit a greater interest in the past and in process than most anarchical models allow. Likewise, while her visions of a future aided by AI and bio-technologies appear end-state, her improvisational works with her Electronic Instrument System (EIS) suggest a more process-based, method utopian approach. Her Deep Listening practice is deeply method-utopian, and her Center for Deep Listening can be viewed as an attempt at bringing these method utopian principles to the real world.

This thesis is an interdisciplinary study of the aesthetics of movement in Gilles Deleuze’s writings and in Merce Cunningham’s choreographies. But it is also a study of the movement that arises when the two meet in a series of variations, where also their respective working partners Félix Guattari and John Cage enter. It is a textual happening where the random juxtaposition between seemingly unrelated areas, philosophy and dance, gives rise to arbitrary connections. It is a textual machine, composed of seven parts. First, the methodological architecture of the juxtaposition is introduced and it is shown how this relates to the materials (the philosophy of Deleuze and the aesthetics of Cunningham), the relation between the materials, and the respective contexts of the materials. The presence of movement in Deleuze’s thinking is then presented and the figure of immobile movement is defined. This figure is a leitmotif of the analyses. It is argued that this figure of immobile movement is not only a stylistic element but has implications on a philosophical level, implications that materialise in Deleuze’s texts. Then follow four parts that build a heterogeneous whole. The analysis of movement is continued through four juxtapositions of particular texts and particular choreographies. Through these juxtapositions, different aspects of movement appear and are discussed: the relation between movement and sensation, movement in interaction with other arts, movement as a means of taking the body to its limit, movement as transformation. Through these analyses, the aesthetics of Cunningham is put into new contexts. The analyses also put into relief Deleuze’s use of figures of movement, and these suddenly acquire another kind of importance. In the seventh and concluding part, all this is brought into play.

This document contains a synopsis of Toshi Ichiyanagi’s compositional style, a discussion of his musical philosophy, and an analysis of Trio Webster. Ichiyanagi is a renowned Japanese composer who studied in New York under John Cage’s mentorship. He is also the first composer to introduce Cage’s concept of chance operation to Japanese society. Trio Webster realizes the true exchange of Western and Eastern cultures, and it is accomplished because of Ichiyanagi’s unique experience and philosophy as an international composer. The concept of Japanese classical music and Japanese aesthetics are observed in Trio Webster which is the basis for the depth of the work. Eastern concepts, especially Japanese, can be ambiguous and may be difficult for Westerners to fully appreciate. This study shows the cosmos beyond the practical analysis of Trio Webster and is meant to serve as a guide for those who will perform the works of Ichiyanagi, especially Trio Webster, in the future. This study was facilitated through research and interviews with Ichiyanagi and members of the Webster Trio. Ichiyanagi’s interview is included as an appendix to this document.