Abstract
In the early 1960s, the arrival of John Cage’s aleatoric music caused a sensation in
the musical world of Japan. The reaction was known as the “John Cage Shock”. Many
Japanese critics and musicians considered the essence of Cage’s music to exist in the
chance operations of his method of composing music. The interpretation of this concept
among many critics tended to the metaphysical and mystic. Yuji Takahashi (1938-) argued
that these assessments were inaccurate and asked, “Where is chance in John Cage’s
works?” He proposed to understand Cage’s work through the concept of indeterminacy.
Cage himself, of course, also used this term. However, Takahashi’s idea of indeterminacy
differs from Cage’s; Takahashi’s idea focuses on the indeterminacy that intervenes not
only between scores and performances but also between the performed sound (Takahashi
referred to it as the vague sound) and the audience. However, this understanding of
indeterminacy fails to account for Cage’s usage of this type of sound in his works.
Cage’s aleatoric music and indeterminacy cast a long shadow over Japanese music
post the Second World War. This paper assesses the reception of Cage’s music in Japan,
indicating Cage’s influence on Takahashi’s compositions.
