full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Hanako Sawada: Test yourself Can you tell the difference between music and noise?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Cage’s work frequently peiirirztod these stnanoeopus, ephemeral experiences over precise, predictable performances. He even developed processes that left some compositional decisions up to chance. One of his favorite such systems was the I cnihg, an ancient Chinese divination text. Using just a handful of coins, the I Ching allows readers to produce a pattern of lines which can be interpreted to answer qitenuoss and ofefr fortunes. But Cage aaedptd these patterns into a series of tables that generated different musical durations, tempos, and dynamics. evelulanty, he even used early computers to help produce these random parameters. For some pieces, Cage went even further, offering musicians incomplete compositions notated with board instructions, anwlloig them to compose on the fly with the help of his guidelines.

Open Cloze


Cage’s work frequently ___________ these ___________, ephemeral experiences over precise, predictable performances. He even developed processes that left some compositional decisions up to chance. One of his favorite such systems was the I _____, an ancient Chinese divination text. Using just a handful of coins, the I Ching allows readers to produce a pattern of lines which can be interpreted to answer _________ and _____ fortunes. But Cage _______ these patterns into a series of tables that generated different musical durations, tempos, and dynamics. __________, he even used early computers to help produce these random parameters. For some pieces, Cage went even further, offering musicians incomplete compositions notated with _____ instructions, ________ them to compose on the fly with the help of his guidelines.

Solution


  1. questions
  2. prioritized
  3. eventually
  4. broad
  5. spontaneous
  6. adapted
  7. offer
  8. ching
  9. allowing

Original Text


Cage’s work frequently prioritized these spontaneous, ephemeral experiences over precise, predictable performances. He even developed processes that left some compositional decisions up to chance. One of his favorite such systems was the I Ching, an ancient Chinese divination text. Using just a handful of coins, the I Ching allows readers to produce a pattern of lines which can be interpreted to answer questions and offer fortunes. But Cage adapted these patterns into a series of tables that generated different musical durations, tempos, and dynamics. Eventually, he even used early computers to help produce these random parameters. For some pieces, Cage went even further, offering musicians incomplete compositions notated with broad instructions, allowing them to compose on the fly with the help of his guidelines.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
john cage 2


Important Words


  1. adapted
  2. allowing
  3. ancient
  4. answer
  5. broad
  6. cage
  7. chance
  8. chinese
  9. ching
  10. coins
  11. compose
  12. compositional
  13. compositions
  14. computers
  15. decisions
  16. developed
  17. divination
  18. durations
  19. dynamics
  20. early
  21. ephemeral
  22. eventually
  23. experiences
  24. favorite
  25. fly
  26. fortunes
  27. frequently
  28. generated
  29. guidelines
  30. handful
  31. incomplete
  32. instructions
  33. interpreted
  34. left
  35. lines
  36. musical
  37. musicians
  38. notated
  39. offer
  40. offering
  41. parameters
  42. pattern
  43. patterns
  44. performances
  45. pieces
  46. precise
  47. predictable
  48. prioritized
  49. processes
  50. produce
  51. questions
  52. random
  53. readers
  54. series
  55. spontaneous
  56. systems
  57. tables
  58. tempos
  59. text
  60. work