The New Musical Notation: A Graphic Art?

Abstract

Following the rupture with the past in the visual arts, contemporary music too has broken violently with tradition in the last 40 years. The palette of sound possibilities has been radically increased-including electronic sounds and noise-and with the new theories and techniques have come equally radical changes in musical notation. Some of the changes have been functional and essential, some have been extremist and exaggerated. The illustrations-the graphic pictures used as scores-show the extent offreedom and responsibility given to the performers and to chance. The resemblance of some of the scores to the work of painters of the last decades, such as Mondrian, Miro and Klee is striking. The new notation has aroused much dissent and opposition as well as support. Exhibitions have been given of 'graphic scores', numerous analytical articles have been written; publishers protest because of the greatly increased cost in beginning from scratch for each score; there is no standardization of indications for special effects; conductors and performers find the 'realization' of the scores extremely difficult and time-consuming. One writer, Karl Roschitz, clarifies the purpose of this new graphic notation in these terms: 'The essential condition of these optical transcriptions, apart from questions ofpassingfashion, is the constant desire tofindfor the work to be performed and interpreted a method offixation, so to speak, adapted to the material and which thereby gives the interpreter a clear, transparent and complete picture of the work as well as of the events and problems which are its key . . . on these scores are indicated only the purely approximative musical evolutions and developments-evolutions intended to make the performer himself discover and make felt the facets and relations of sound, of perpetually new sound events.' The writer poses the question of whether these graphic scores may not be regarded with more interest for their visual appeal in the future than for the music which they are intended to communicate. These experiments may stimulate and strengthen later creativeness: they reflect the desire to evolve new forms of expression and new tools of communication, and in the new notations, they reveal a kinship with the graphic artist which has never before existed so strongly.