Authors: Katya Barmotina, Sarah Christianson, Anna Wilkens-Reed – 3 minute read
Introducing the first installment of our Achelois Education summer series: Outside the Self!
“Outside the Self” is all about inspiring courageous and vulnerable human connections, especially with people who seem different from you. In this 3-part series, we’ll explore themes such as empathy, social awareness, and active listening through the means of the graphic score. If you’re unfamiliar with a graphic score, it’s a medium containing symbols, images, shapes, or animations from which musicians read as they perform. Anything goes for a graphic score!
Owing to their flexible notation, graphic scores can offer specific instructions for performance or merely present a visual interpretation of the piece itself, leaving the stylistic choices entirely up to the performer(s). Early graphic scores were originally referred to as "Augenmusik", which literally translates to "eye music”. This music is to be appreciated sonically and visually with some of the oldest surviving compositions from the Renaissance period. One example of Augenmusik is the canon “Tout par compass suy corposis”, composed by Baude Cordier (ca. 1380 – ca. 1440). Take a look below for a manuscript animation and performance.
These days, graphic scores and other forms of contemporary music are typically performed by highly trained musicians for audiences of other highly trained musicians. But since performing graphic scores often requires no prior training or musical knowledge, these pieces naturally welcome the participation of a broader audience. In “Outside the Self,” we hope to tap into this innate accessibility of graphic scores and use them to inspire high-quality music making regardless of prior knowledge or experience. So let’s take a look at some of our favorite graphic scores from the past 60 or so years!
Stripsody for Solo Voice (1966) was the first musical work composed by mezzo-soprano Cathy Berberian. Using the onomatopoeic sounds of comic strips illustrated by Roberto Zamarin, which are used to communicate a succession of intriguing vignettes, Stripsody set a completely new standard for new music composition during the 1960's.
Music for Airports by Brian Eno (interview quotes from https://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/new-again-brian-eno)
Brian Eno is a contemporary musician known for using graphic notation. He had no formal training in music education and thus wasn’t able to notate in a traditional form. He made graphic scores a typical part of his normal process because he didn’t know another way to write. In describing his creative method, he said: “quite a lot of what I do has to do with sound texture, and you can’t notate that anyway… That’s because musical notation arose when sound textures were limited.”
In his piece, Music for Airports, Eno gave his performers simple instructions for interpreting the score such as ‘play the note C every 21 seconds’.
Check out the score for Eno’s Music for Airports and its performance.
Luminous Axis (2002) composed by Leo Wadada Smith
Composers with formal training have also turned to the medium of the graphic score. Luminous Axis (2002) is an electronic piece composed by American Jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and is described by the composer as "An Electronic Sonic Garden of Delights and Transformations, Events 1-15". See the score and hear its interpretation below.
George Crumb’s Spiral Galaxy is one of the most recognizable graphic scores today. It combines traditional and graphic notation.
“Spiral Galaxy” composed by George Crumb
