Scores

The Plastic Score

Rather than using a static score to communicate musical material, I have been experimenting with the utilization of computer motion graphics technology to animate musical notation. I call this type of score a “plastic score.” Although the plastic score need not necessarily involve motion graphics, I find the interactive Motion Graphics Score the most malleable, flexible, pliable, variable, alterable. It allows the option of progressing through the composition like a film or skipping to various parts of the score in response to human interaction. Because of this flexibility, the motion graphics score has the potential to significantly alter traditional communication streams between the score and the performer, and, in larger works, between the score, performers, and conductor. I imagine that this type of score will have as great an impact on musical notation as film has had on theater.

This electronic score can communicate a wide range of actions to performers through the use of specific (i.e. conventional), semi-specific and non-specific visual symbols. It not only deals visually with basic parameters of sound such as high/low, loud/quiet, fast/slow, but also with elements of sound approached from a visual perspective such as light/shade, foreground/background, and bright/muted, as well as creating atmospheric impressions. Rather than conveying a fixed intent, it has the capability of being a fluid reflection and dynamic guide.

The motion graphics score is not a form of “visual music,” in which visual images reflect musical content, nor is it a form of aural interpretation of visual images. Rather, it is a communication device that serves as a dynamic guide, actively involved in the creation of the aural environment.

Graphic Scores: Correlative Versus Procedural

Although traditional notation makes use of graphic components, its strength lies in its blend of numerous communication devices, including letters of the alphabet, numbers, and verbal indications, along with graphic elements such as staves, barlines, phrase markings, and notes. What distinguishes it from what has come to be known as the “graphic score” is its purpose. Earle Brown identified fully notated music that communicates exactly what is to be played as “explicit” notation, as opposed to “implicit” notation, which uses visual cues to indicate certain kinds of activity.

There are two basic types of symbols used in all scores. They are what I call correlative and procedural types. With a correlative type there is some kind of one-to-one correspondence between what is seen and what is heard. In this type, the vertical axis usually represents pitch with “high” notes closest to the top, while the horizontal axis represents time moving from left to right. With regard to traditional notation, melody placed on a staff is an example of a correlative symbol set, while the flags and beams used to show the rhythm of the melody are example of procedural symbols.

Notice that while the correlative symbol requires only one step to interpret, the procedural symbol requires at least two. In other words, when the performer sees a note written on the middle line of the treble staff, he or she produces a b above middle c. However, procedural symbols, such as rhythmic symbols, require an extra step. The performer in this case must place the rhythm against a background tempo in order to execute the correct placement in time. Spatial rhythmic notation, on the other hand, is an example of rhythmic figures notated within a simple correlative system. A clear distinction between these types is important to the understanding of graphic objects in general, and is one of the means I use to categorize objects in my own scores.

Another aspect that distinguishes the correlative from the procedural symbol is its indication of time. The correlative symbol could be said to be “closed” or “finite,” meaning that the symbol itself has a beginning, middle, and end, and is scanned by the eye in much the same way as is written language. The procedural symbol, on the other hand, is “open” or “infinite,” viewed much like a picture. Unlike a line of text or traditionally notated music, a picture can be scanned starting from any point, moving along any path, and ending anywhere for potentially as long as the viewer desires.

¹ Reginald Smith Brindle, The New Music: The Avante-garde since 1945 (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), 130.