Series 1 - Episode 1
Research

Graphic score book compilation which inspired podcast theme:

Drawing inspiration from John Cage's, Notations, Notations 21 features illustrated musical scores from more than 100 international composers, all of whom are making amazing breakthroughs in the art of notation. These spectacularly beautiful and fascinatingly creative visual pieces not only make for exciting music, but inspiring visual art as well. Notations 21 - Theresa Sauer

Classic FM Graphic Scores

An exploration of taken from Sauer’s book (Notations 21). Also includes brief text underneath score to help indicate composers intentions with the score, however, it is still down to the performer to interpret the score how they feel. Art and music collide in these 20 stunning graphic scores

Graphic Notation, Indeterminacy and Improvisation

“According to Derek Bailey improvisation “pre-dates any other music—mankind’s first musical performance couldn’t have been anything other than a free improvisation”. Bailey means that improvisation always has been a part of music. Written evidence of early improvisation in Europe can be traced to medieval scores and literature.” Bröndum, L. (2018) Graphic Notation, Indeterminacy and Improvisation: Implementing Choice Within a Compositional Framework

The Guardian collection of different graphic scores:

“All notated music is graphic in the sense that there are signs to tell you what to do and when to do it. All music, that is, whose sounds we can reconstruct. Before that stretch tens of thousands of years whose music left no mark apart from the occasional evocative fragment of a bone flute from the Stone Age.”

Playing pictures: the wonder of graphic scores

Notation Cultures: Towards an Ethnomusicology of Notation

“David Tudor once said, ‘There is a paragraph in Busoni which speaks of notation as an evil separating musicians from music, and I feel everyone should know that this is true.’ There is a hint in such comments of what Jonathan Sterne has called the ‘audio-visual litany’, positing the aural experience of music as more authentic and truthful than one mediated by vision.” Schuiling, F. (2019) “Notation Cultures: Towards an Ethnomusicology of Notation,” Journal of the Royal Musical Association , Cambridge University Press

Graphic Scores

“This exhibition is divided into four parts: Storytelling, Composition as Performance, Place and Landscape and Listening. Each exploring different approaches, to celebrate just some of the ways in which British artists are working with graphic scores today. The artists featured use graphic scores to tell stories, to map or document the sounds of a specific geographical location, to encourage people to listen again to their surroundings, and to examine issues of authorship and compositional process.” Jacob Thompson-Bell

Music for Young Players

An interactive archive series of pieces from the 1960's and 70's from the British Music Collection curated by Duncan Chapman. Mainly explores a variety of ‘alternative’ scores used to help engage with students learning music in the classroom. Duncan Chapman

YouTube Links:

David Hall writes: “Treatise is a masterpiece of visual communication and a major achievement in any musical system. It contains 193 pages of beautifully rendered lines, symbols and shapes” (Hall). In Treatise, all that is left from traditional notation is an empty staff on the bottom of the score with abstract graphical symbols above. Watch here: Cornelius Cardew - Treatise (1963-67)

Take a look at each of the 3 graphic scores performed by Joe and Joseph

Series 1 - Episode 1 Research