Avant Garde (əvánt gárd) when applied to music refers to pieces or styles considered to be ahead of their time. Avant garde music often uses new elements not previously explored in music or will fuse styles that haven’t been combined before. Avant garde classical music typically refers to classical music composed and recorded after the 1960’s, and it can include styles that emphasize minimalism or indeterminacy. John Cage might be the most well-known avant garde composer, and his work emphasized indeterminacy or composition by chance. Rather than planning out elements like length, tempo or other aspects or dynamics of the music, he selected them at random by throwing coins using the fortune-telling medium known as the I-Ching. He also would frequently leave decisions about musical elements to individual performers, thereby creating wide variances in performances of the same piece.