ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 moves towards jazz to investigate the ways in which aleatoric procedure operates in Beckett’s Lessness (1970). I explore how indeterminacy and improvisation might be compared. After outlining some of the connections between the aesthetics of John Cage and Beckett, I provide a close analysis of Scott Fields’ avantjazz instrumental music. Fields has used Beckett’s repetitive texts as a structural device for his improvisations, and an analysis of these works in relation to Beckett’s work highlights many theoretical issues as text becomes performed music. As the written word becomes sounded as inspiration for new music beyond Beckett, Fields’ two albums based on Beckett plays display how transmedial repetition can be translated in transformative ways.
