On the Problem of Notation in Mixed Type Composition: From the Experience of Marco Stroppa

Abstract

The evolutionary processes in the field of musical notation, which characterize the second half of the 20th century, reflected the main trend in the individualization of styles. The large-scale development of new instrumental techniques and technologies for synthesis and electronic sound processing stimulated the further development of a musical notation system as one of the means of visualizing a musical idea. Marco Stroppa, one of the leading composers of modern Europe, made significant developments in the field of graphic fixation of both new timbres and various aspects of the interaction of acoustic and electronic instruments within the framework of a mixed type composition. The interpenetration of the techniques of sound synthesis and instrumental writing as a special subject of Stroppa’s interest is reflected not only in his musical work, but also in his texts. The musicological literature in Russian about Stroppa is represented by the only article by the author of this publication, in which, for the first time, a number of aspects of Stroppa’s compositional method were analyzed using the example of the triptych “Traiettoria” for piano and computer-generated sounds, and the history of the birth of the piece was recreated. This publication focuses on the problem of notation in a mixed type composition and introduces into scientific use Stroppa’s compositional developments, implemented by him in the score “Traiettoria… deviate”, the first part of the “Traiettoria” cycle. The symbolic graphics of electronic sounds (“sound ‘objects’”) are considered, based on the composer’s commentary, such essential concepts for his workshop as a sound complex-“code”, temporal and frequency “staves” are characterized, examples of dynamic levels notation, pitch indication are presented as well as the schemes of the spatial disposition of the “synthetic orchestra” — a complex of multiple sound sources that organize the “spatial polyphony” of the piece.