Aleatoricism

{{Short description|Art works resulting from actions by chance}}

{{For|the legal term|Aleatory contract}}

{{More citations needed|date=December 2010}}

Aleatoricism (or aleatorism) is a term for musical compositions and other forms of art{{citation needed|date=November 2019}} resulting from "actions made by chance".

The term was first used "in the context of electro-acoustics and information theory" to describe "a course of sound events that is determined in its framework and flexible in detail", by Belgian-German physicist, acoustician, and information theorist Werner Meyer-Eppler.Werner Meyer-Eppler (1955) "Statistische und psychologische Klangprobleme," Elektronische Musik, Die Reihe I (Herbert Eimert, ed.) Vienna, p. 22. English translation: Werner Meyer-Eppler (1957) "Statistic and Psychologic Problems of Sound" (Alexander Goehr, transl.). Electronic Music, Die Reihe 1 (H. Eimert, ed.), pp. 55–61, esp. p. 55. In practical application, in compositions by Mozart and Kirnberger, for instance, the order of the measures of a musical piece were left to be determined by throwing dice, and in performances of music by Pousseur (e.g., Répons pour sept musiciens, 1960), musicians threw dice "for sheets of music and cues". However, more generally in musical contexts, the term has had varying meanings as it was applied by various composers, and so a single, clear definition for aleatory music is defied.{{cite journal | author = Sabine Feisst | date = 1 March 2002 | title = Losing Control: Indeterminacy and Improvisation in Music Since 1950 | journal = NewMusicBox | url = http://www.newmusicbox.org/page.nmbx?id=35tp02 | access-date = 24 March 2019 | quote = The concept of 'aleatory' was preferred by European composers, among them Pierre Boulez, Witold Lutosławski and Franco Evangelisti. It was first used by Werner Meyer-Eppler in the context of electro-acoustics and information theory for describing a course of sound events that is determined in its framework and flexible in detail.(6) Aleatory, a word derived from the Latin alea, has many different meanings such as dice, game of dice, risk, danger, bad surprise, and chance. Most composers using aleatory referred to the meaning of chance, but some composers referred to meanings like risk (for instance Evangelisti) and dice (Henri Pousseur composed a piece called Répons pour sept musiciens, 1960, where performers throw dice for sheets of music and cues, a procedure similar to pieces by Kirnberger or Mozart in which the order of the measures is determined by throwing a dice.). Many composers thought they dealt with chance and created chance compositions when they allowed for greater performance flexibility. None of them used chance operations as Cage did. Since many composers were skeptical about "pure" chance and mere accident they came up with the idea of "controlled chance" and "limited aleatorism" (preferred by Lutosławski). | archive-date = 4 June 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110604040617/http://www.newmusicbox.org/page.nmbx?id=35tp02 | url-status = dead }} The term was popularised by the musical composer Pierre Boulez,{{Citation needed lead|date=May 2020|reason=The body of the article says the term used by Boulez is "aleatory", not "aleatoricism"}} but also Witold Lutosławski and Franco Evangelisti.

Its etymology derives from alea, Latin for "dice",{{cite web | editor = Iwona Lindstedt | date = 24 November 2019 | title = Glossary: Aleatory music | work = MusicinMovement.eu | url = https://www.musicinmovement.eu/glossary | access-date = 24 November 2019 | quote = The term aleatory was popularized in Europe by Pierre Boulez means a musical result of actions made by chance ("alea" is Latin for "dice") or choice. The composers offered the players, for example, choices of route through the fragments of their work, allowed them to join these elements freely but, at the same time, they were completely responsible for the overall shape of the work. Aleatory music is sometimes treated as a synonym of indeterminate music (indeterminacy) but the latter term was preferred by John Cage and meant not only performance liberties but also the use of chance element in the process of composition. Although aleatoricism is an extremely different musical concept than serialism, the end result of both ideas may sound surprisingly alike. | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190730150527/http://musicinmovement.eu/glossary | archive-date = 30 July 2019 | url-status = dead }} and it is the noun associated with the adjectival aleatory and aleatoric.

Aleatory should not be confused with either indeterminacy, or improvisation.{{Failed verification|date=November 2019|reason=On the contrary, Feisst treats aleatory and improvisation together, as closely related terms.}}