John Cage ve I Ching metodunu kullanışı

John Cage (1912 – 1992) is an American composer in twentieth century. Beginning with his work Music of Changes in 1951, he utilized the method of the I Ching (or Book of Changes), which is emerged around 3000 years ago in China and still practiced by the masters. This book, the most ancient system of wisdom, philosophy, and divination, gives answers to questions about the future with its sixty-four hexagrams. This thesis is primarily written to create a scientific research, which examines the connections between John Cage and the I Ching, his system of using this method as well as his works produced by consulting the I Ching. Additionally, it is explained, how this method used in religion and philosophy, medicine, visual arts, and architecture, as well as the purpose of the usage. John Cage studied with one of the most important composers of the twentieth century, Arnold Schoenberg. During these studies, he realized that he did not have any interest for the classical and standard harmony, thus he started to seek for newness in the music. This seeking began with knowing and understanding himself better, and continued with learning Zen Buddhism and Indian philosophy. In the following years, he met the I Ching through Christian Wolff, a student of him. Briefly, he discovered how to eject his own tastes likes and dislikes, even his ego from the process of creating. After this discovery, he produced nearly thirty musical compositions, as well as visual and literary works by making use of the I Ching, which has not been applied by a known composer until this era. The contents of the works of John Cage by utilizing the method of I Ching and their common features are explained in this thesis. Besides the charts, he created for sounds, durations, amplitudes, superpositions and layers, the hexagrams are also examined, which are matching with these charts. Furthermore, the facts about the other methods Cage used, such as Indeterminacy and Prepared Piano are described. The purpose of this thesis is to create a scientific study that investigates the influences of this ancient Far-Eastern method on John Cage's music, the features of his works produced by consulting the I Ching, and the characteristics of this unconventional creating method.