Composition In Retrospect Author:John Cage Written in his characteristic "mesostics" (linked lines of prose poetry), Composition in Retrospect is a statement of methodology in which composer John Cage examines the central issues of his work: indeterminacy, nonunderstanding, inconsistency, imitation, variable structure, contingency. Finished only shortly before his death in 1992, <... more »I>Composition in Retrospect completes the documentation of Cage's thought that began with his classic book Silence (1961), but it is an introduction and invitation to his work as much as a summary or conclusion. Also included in this volume (at Cage's request) is "Themes and Variations," a piece written in 1982 about friends and heroes such as Jasper Johns, Buckminster Fuller, Marcel Duchamp and Erik Satie. Together these pieces form a book that is both a testament to the artists Cage admired, and a clear statement of his own ars poetica.« less