Score: Treatise, Cornelius Cardew, 1963-7
Display Case
Graphic Notation Display Case, June 2023
Books About Graphic Notation
WRITING AND INTERPRETING GRAPHIC SCORES
New Music Vocabulary: a guide to notational signs for contemporary music by Call Number: ML431 .R6ISBN: 9780252004063Publication Date: 1975-03-01
Music Notation in the Twentieth Century: a practical guidebook by Call Number: MT35 .S87ISBN: 0393950530Publication Date: 1980-11-17
A Semiotic Approach to Open Notations by Call Number: ML430.7 .M35 2021ISBN: 9781108813327Publication Date: 2021-04-29
Expressiveness in Music Performance by Call Number: ML430.5 .E97 2014ISBN: 9780199659647Publication Date: 2014-09-03
Techniques of the Contemporary Composer by Call Number: MT40 .C74 1997ISBN: 0028647378Publication Date: 1997-08-07
Ear Training for Twentieth-Century Music by Call Number: MT35 .F87 1990ISBN: 0300045360Publication Date: 1990-08-29
GRAPHIC SCORE COMPOSERS
The Graph Music of Morton Feldman by Call Number: ML410.F2957 C55 2016ISBN: 9781107109230Publication Date: 2016-05-26
Musicage: Cage muses on words, art, music by Call Number: Online AccessISBN: 0819552852Publication Date: 1996-01-19
The Process That Is the World by Call Number: ML410.C24 P35 2015ISBN: 9781628925715Publication Date: 2015-12-17
Silencing the Sounded Self by Call Number: Online AccessISBN: 1611685087Publication Date: 2013-11-05
The Works of Karlheinz Stockhausen by Call Number: ML410.S858 M32ISBN: 0193154293Publication Date: 1976-05-01- Stockhausen: life and work by Call Number: ML410.S858 W62 1973cISBN: 0520021436Publication Date: 1973-01-01
Graphic Scores at the Music Library
"12. Spiral Galaxy (Aquarius)"
Makrokosmos I
George Crumb, 1974
CRUMB, G.: Makrokosmos I and II (Henz-Diémand)
Part III: No. 12 Spiral Galaxy (Aquarius)
Naxos Music Library
Belle, bonne, sage, plaisant
Baude Cordier, 15th century
Find "Belle, bonne, sage" in Capturing Music: the story of notation by Thomas Forrest Kelly (ML 431.K45 2015).
Vocal Music (Medieval) - CASERTA, P. de / CORDIER, B. / EGIDIUS DE FRANCIA / PYKINI (Codex Chantilly, Vol. 3) (Tetraktys)
Bonne, belle, sage, plaisant
Naxos Music Library
Projection I
Morton Feldman
Find "Projection 1" and other works by Morton Feldman in The Graph Music of Morton Feldman (ML 410.F2957 C55 2016).
FELDMAN, M.: Patterns in a Chromatic Field (Deforce, Y. Oya)
Projection I
Naxos Music Library
Serenata per un satellite
Bruno Maderna, 1970
BERIO: Linea / Sequenza VIII / Chamber Music / MADERNA: Serenata per un satellite / Giardino Religioso / Oboe Concerto No. 2
Serenata per un satellite
Naxos Music Library
Types of Graphic Score
Augenmusik
Augenmusik ("eye music"): Music with graphic features apparent to a performer or reader, but not to a listener.
One of the earliest graphic scores dates back to the 15th century. “Belle, bonne, sage” (“Beautiful, good, wise”) by Baude Cordier is a rondeau about love, appropriately arranged in the shape of a heart.
"Bonne, belle, sage" by Baude Cordier
Some 500 years after Cordier, George Crumb employed a similar technique in Makrokosmos II, arranging “12. Agnus Dei” (a reference to the section of Christian liturgy that end with the words “grant us peace”) in the shape of a peace sign.
"12. Agnus Dei (Capricorn)" from Makrokosmos II by George Crumb
Listen to "Belle, bonne, sage, plaisant" and "Agnus Dei (Capricorn)" on Naxos:
Chamber Music - CORDIER, B. / CUVELIER, J. / GALIOT, J. / VAILLANT, J. / SENLECHES, J. de / TREBOR (French Ars Subtilior) (Trio Subtilior)
Belle, bonne, sage, plaisant
CRUMB, G.: Makrokosmos I and II (Stange)
Part III: No. 12 Agnus Dei (Capricorn)
Electronic Sound
Some composers utilize graphic notation to describe electronic sounds that have no representation in traditional staff notation. In the example below from Symfonia: muzyka elektroniczna (Symphony: electronic music), composer Bogusław Schäffer uses a variety of pictograms and symbols to notate electronically produced sounds.
Symfonia : muzyka elektroniczna, Bogusław Schäffer
Indeterminacy
Graphic scores can be difficult or impossible to interpret at first glance. This inspires some composers to create music that varies drastically depending on the performer interprets the score. In this way, graphic notation serves as an improvisation guide, rather than a prescriptive recipe for sound.
Most famous for his composition 4’33”, avant-garde American composer John Cage (1912-1992) “investigated ways of opening up his compositions by making their notation ambiguous, a situation he referred to as “indeterminacy.” This meant that the results of his compositional systems were no longer fixed objects but took on more the character of processes. The performer’s role was to animate the process Cage had set forth, producing results that, while having certain similarities, would differ in details at each performance or “realization.””
Citation: Pritchett, J., Kuhn, L., & Garrett, C. Cage, John. Grove Music Online. Retrieved 9 Jun. 2023.
John Cage, "Solo for voice (Aria no. 2)"
Compare two different interpretations of "Solo for voice no. 52 (Aria no. 2)" by John Cage:
Singing Through: Vocal Compositions by John Cage, Joan La Barbara
Songs of Irrelevance and Passion, Canto LX, Frank Agsteribbe
Extended Techniques
Graphic notation can communicate extended techniques or unconventional methods of using an instrument. These extended techniques might require playing an instrument in an unorthodox way, like tapping on the bell of a brass instrument, or they might dictate a timbre or tone color, like instructing a singer to scream or sing with a breathy tone quality.
Luciano Berio, Sequenza III (excerpt)
Listen to Sequenza III interpreted by Barbara Hannigan:
Creating Graphic Scores
MuseScore, Finale, Dorico, and Sibelius all support imported graphics. Check out a laptop from the music library to use Finale or Sibelius, or download MuseScore for free. UT students can also download Adobe Creative Cloud for free through the Office of Innovative Technologies.