Waves takes an opposing approach to Dream and is an exploration of fluid composition. Using samples, Waves is arranged in ‘free time’ without any discernable time signature. The aim was to create a piece that repeats the same group of elements, with each repeating section introducing new components of sound. Composer Phillip Glass comments on his piece Symphony Number 7 in comparison to waves on the beach; each new wave of the piece is similar yet unique (Weekend Edition 2005). The wave analogy is also relevant to Waves; each new wave of sounds flow in, crashes, settles, and then repeats. The strength of the piece is in the subtleties of variations consisting of sounds, samples and silence (audio media 13).
Throughout my research of composition including both intentional and chance procedures I was continually directed towards Cage. Cage’s sophisticated procedures are obvious in Music of Changes (1951) (Joseph 2009, p. 215). After determining the overall structure of the composition, he split the internal compositional elements of amplitude, dynamics, duration, tempi and superposition into twenty-six charts. Within each chart was also a space reserved for the incorporation of silence. The charts, incorporation of hexagrams and coin tossing procedures derived from within the I Ching, determined the outcomes of the piece (2009).
The complexities of Music of Changes are magnified in comparison to Cages 4’33” (1952). This is a conceptual piece that involves the musician, to sit at a piano for example, and perform nothing (Pritchett 1993, p. 60). The result is, arguably, silence. Although 4’33” uses silence as its fundamental concept, the piece is still dependent on sound: the absence of sound and the sounds that still exist amidst silence.
