TheVisualContextofMusic

"Amusicalnotationisalanguagewhichdetermineswhatyoucansay;
whatyouwanttosaydeterminesyourlanguage."[CorneliusCardew1961]

'Cant
orinusadEorumInstructionem'LuceAntoniiJunte,1540.
*Ithink*thattheimageofthehandwasmeantasamnemonicdevicetobeused
instaggeredsingingofhymnssoastoremembertheallowednotes...orsomething.

rtFludd(15741637).Opera,[Francofurti:Goudae],Oppenhemii,
J.Th.deBryethaeredes,C.F.etG.Fitzer,P.Pammazenius,16171638."

"Robe

Gabri
elSizes
'EtudeExprimentaledAcoustiqueMusicale'1920
[me:Ihavenoidea]

Randy
RaineReusch'Leaves2'1993.
"Thisscorecanbeperformedaurally,visually,kinesthetically,
synesthetically,interactively,literally,symbolically,orphilosophically."
ToruTakemitsu1962'StudyforVibration'(from'CoronaforPianists').
"Theperformancemaystartatanypointoftheperimeternomatterclockwiseorcounterclockwise." [nb.
There'sachancethiswasmislabelledandisactuallybySylvanoBussotti]

Murra
ySchfer1977
'DivanIShamsITabriz'forOrchestra,sevensingersandelectronicsounds.

'Bird
GongGame'~1990sBarryGuy

Corne
liusCardew'Treatise'(detail)1967.

Georg
eCrumb'MakrokosmosII12.AgnusDei[Symbol]Capricorn'.1973.

Georg
eCrumb'MakrokosmosI12.SpiralGalaxy[Symbol]Aquarius'.1973.

'The
ArtofFugue'bookartbyElizabethHarington.
[AliteraryuseorresponsetothefuguecanbefoundinJoyce's11thepisodeinUlysses('Sirens')inwhich
thewordingandchapterstructureattemptedwithsomepoeticlicensetomimicorworkwithinthe
rulesofthefugue.Unsurprisingly,aquicksearchon'Sirens'revealedthatJohnCage,aleadingmusical
experimentalistandgraphicscore'artist'namesJamesJoyceasaninfluence.See:'JamesJoyceandAvant
GardeMusic'ScottW.Klein2004attheContemporaryMusicCentre.]

'For
Andreasection4'KerryJohnAndrews[detail]

Scree
ncapturefromSeeMusicProject:Kircher/Monteverdi.
Thisposthadbeenleftonthebackburnerformanymonths.Graphicalscoresareamodernisttrendsoof
coursecopyrightandcommercialinterestsmeansthattherearenotasmanyexamplesonlineasIhad
otherwisehoped.

Wikipediahasaverybasicintroductiontoexperimentalmusic.

TheBlockMuseum's'PicturesofMusic'exhibitionatNorthwestenUniversityinIllinoishasa
greatpresentationaboutthehistoryandexponentsofgraphicalscores.Alas,allthelinkstolarge
imagesaredead,astheyweremonthsagowhenIfirstcheckedoutthesite.

Thefirst3imagesabovecomefromawonderfulexhibitioninfrenchatLaBibliothquede
Toulouse(clickon'exposvirtuelle')'Entreleslignesdelaporte:quandlamusiquesedonne
voir'somethinglike:'Betweenthelinesoftherange:whenthemusicisseen.'Lotsofrare
musicbookimagesandmusicsamples.

AYoungPerson'sGuideto'Treatise'CorneliusCardew.

ScoregalleryataJapanesesite.

BarryGuygraphicalscoresatMayaRecordings.

TheExperimentalMusicCatalogue(includingtheJournalofExperimentalMusic).

TheofficialGeorgeCrumbhomepage.

TheNewMusicBoxonGeorgeCrumbpdfscoresatthebottomofthepage.

'APerformerDrawntothePiano'sWildSide'[NewYorkTimes]:WhyMargaretLengTanhas
16toypianosandthreeSteinwaysinherBrooklynapartment.

KarlheinzStockhausenhomepage.(googleimages)

GraphicscoresbyRandyRaineReuschatAsza.

KerryJohnAndrewsgraphicscoresattheDigitalArtMuseum.

JohnKannenburggraphicscores.

ThefinalimageabovecomesfromtheSeeMusicProjectwehavefinallyworkedoutthe
loadingglitch(truncatedURL).It'saflashprogramthatdefinitelyrequiresahighspeed
connectionandiswellworthalook.

Whatdoesmusiclooklike?TheShapeofSong.

'TheArtofFugue'bookartbyElizabethHarington.

ManythanksvariouslyforknownandunknownassistancetoPanopticist,Waggish,GiornaleNuovo,
LanguagehatandBoynton.
Someofthelinkswillplaymusic.Asalways,clicktheaboveimagesforlargerversions.