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Notation marks and explains, it communicates and documents, it prescribes and produces. Within such notational possibilities signs are able to formalise, to solidify but also to expand practice. And while the ritual of performance practices in Classical Music might be seen as highly regulated, in which the performer is often posited as a self-effacing, faithful servant to the notated work, there exist certain practices, including free music improvisation, that not only question notation (and much more!) but that revel in the absence of notational signs. Taking as a starting point Jean-Louis Schefer’s idea of a ʻpractice of notationʼ (1995), I want to think of notation as a colouring of signs, rather than an execution of signs, but going further, I will examine the absence of notation in some improvisational practices and argue that an absence of notational concepts allows performers the creative space for turning inward and for straining towards self (Nancy, 2002). This turning inward becomes a highly intimate, tactile or haptic listening space (examined as haptic aurality in Schroeder, 2009) that not only involves constructing and consolidating the self, urging the performer to be in a constant state of being on the ‘lookout for a relation to self’, it also allows the performer in rejoicing in her body, in noticing her presence and in being self preoccupied in a very tangible relation with her tools. Since I understand free improvisational practices as creative and social exchanges between musicians anchored in high levels of trust, I want to consider music practices that question or ignore notational signs as practices that allow for a deeper reverence for musical, cultural and social engagements with others. With the introduction of computer models into free improvisation practices (the use of Probabilistic Graphical Models, such as Bayesian and Markov networks, as explored in Kalonaris in 2016), we see a return to a desire for notational instructions. Such turn towards imposing notational frameworks counters the socio-political spirit of some of the original ideas of what is meant to be ‘free’, while it shifts the musician’s focus towards the visual sign. Where this move towards a more regulated notational framework will lead free improvisers is yet to be seen - it is certainly a journey that some musicians take reluctantly, always in the hope that the notational signs will further expand, rather than solidify, their practice.
September 22, 2016 07 min
Notation is a system within a system. It has evolved in between or amidst the composer and the performer/instrument and has had a clear position (composer-score-performer), functionality (communication tool and performer engagement), and di
September 22, 2016 11 min
Live coding has been defined as a new path in the evolution of the musical score. Live coding practice accentuates the score, and whilst it is the perfect vehicle for the performance of algorithmic music, it also transforms the compositiona
September 22, 2016 16 min
New technologies pose new challenges for the music score: interactive music, new instruments, mixed medias, purely gesture based performances, are among the domains explored by the contemporary creation that overflow the classical frame of
September 22, 2016 13 min
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September 22, 2016 22 min
I will present and discuss some current issues on movement notation for interactive systems. The growing use of interactive machine learning with new musical interfaces brings new opportunities for movement notation and annotation. It also
September 22, 2016 13 min
The evolution of traditional notation towards increased specificity and complexity has been expanding its role from the composer’s “brain in a vat” into an elastic interface dynamically amalgamated with instruments and performing bodies. In
September 22, 2016 14 min
As composers we naturally focus on sound as our main material, yet spend much of our time drawing – drawing notation. Whether with pen and paper or with notational software, we have much common gound with designers and architects at the ear
September 22, 2016 14 min
The technologies – codes and materials – of inscription play a vital role in forming musical objects and practices, and crucially inform the discourses of music. Many current issues can be traced back to the beginning of the C20th, to the b
September 22, 2016 13 min
The mechanical vibrations we shape and apprehend as artistic sound lend themselves to potentially infinite kinds of notation. Systems devised to plot, store, and recreate sonic events are more or less context-bound: western classical scores
September 22, 2016 14 min
In my talk, I will defend that representationalism has a history and that non-linguistic approaches for writing music might be an alternative for music notation. As Derrida states when referring to Pierce's philosophy of notation: “From the
September 22, 2016 19 min
The development, formalization, codification, and maintenance of common practice notation [CPN] demonstrates a parallel yet intertwined tract to the evolution of musical thought and practice, and while CPN is not the only Western notational
September 22, 2016 14 min
Designing a comprehensive notation for a new musical technology: in particular the challenge of notation for a new musical gesture controller that supports conventional and extended two-bow cello playing with the unusual feature that it has
September 22, 2016 15 min
IanniX is a graphical real-time open-source sequencer, based on Iannis Xenakis works, for digital art. Its graphical space spans several dimensions and time scales. Using a palette of fundamental objects such as triggers (events), curves (t
September 22, 2016 15 min
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