The New Musical Notation: A Graphic Art?

Author(s): John Evarts

Source: Leonardo , Oct., 1968, Vol. 1, No. 4 (Oct., 1968), pp. 405-412
Published by: The MIT Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1571989

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Leonardo, Vol. I, pp. 405-412. Pergamon Press 1968. Printed in Great Britain

THE NEW MUSICAL NOTATION

-A GRAPHIC ART?

John Evarts*

Abstract-Following the rupture with the past in the visual arts,

music too has broken violently with tradition in the last 40 yea
of sound possibilities has been radically increased-including elec
and noise-and with the new theories and techniques have come e
changes in musical notation. Some of the changes have been
essential, some have been extremist and exaggerated. The ill
graphic pictures used as scores-show the extent offreedom and
given to the performers and to chance. The resemblance of som
to the work of painters of the last decades, such as Mondrian, M
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.

I difference whether he uses translucent paper, ten

staves, a hundred or none. The music's there for
The rupture with the past which has been character-
istic of modern art and which has created new hearing!
modes of expression, as well as new techniques of But notation interests both composers and per-
communication, has also occurred in music. This formers vitally, for it is their principal mode of
break can be observed not only in the new sounds communication. And some of the composers are
and musical theories but also in the elaboration of making life difficult indeed these days for per-
formers and conductors and, one should add, for
entirely new and individualistic forms of musical
notation (Figs. 1 and 2). Like painters and sculptors, publishers as well.
There has been a kind of revolution in the
today's musicians are forging new forms and new
tools of communication. notation of some contemporary music, whose fan-
Fundamentally, it is of little interest to a music- tasy at times seems to exceed the extravagances of
lover whether a composer uses India ink, a ball- the music itself. Composers have created their own
point or a goose feather to transcribe on paper hisprivate, individual way of notating their thoughts.
latest work. To the listener it is a matter of in- New musical languages, divorced entirely from
those of the past, have been created. Perhaps within
*Assoc. Exec. Secretary, International Music Council
(Unesco), 6 rue Franklin, Paris 16, France. (Received 26a few years these picturesque squiggles, graphs and
March 1968.) fantasies will be considerably more admired for

405
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406 John Evarts

DI p

WI-
x - I t wq
1 _:d

Fig. 1. Score for 'Nr. 9 Zyklus' by Karlheinz Stockhausen. (Publisher: Universal Edition,
Vienna, 1960.)

Fig. 2. Score for 'Mdndros' by Anestis Logothetis. (Publisher: Universal Edition, Vienna,
1963.)

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 The New Musical Notation-A Graphic Art ? 407

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Fig. 3. Score for 'Mobile for Shakespeare' by Roman Haubenstock-Ramati. (Publisher:

Universal Edition, Vienna, 1961.)

their visual appeal and content than for what they zodiac, others of an industrial design or of a
were intended to communicate: the music itself. microbe culture or of a surrealistic vision or of a
childish scribble dotted with spatters of ink. For
II each of these ways of writing there are, necessarily,
corresponding pages of explanations on how to
While the preciousness and Dadaistic inclinationsread the notation; in more than one case, these
of some extremists among the 'new notators' areexplanations would require supplementary verbal
indeed excessive, there are nevertheless some comment'.
changes that are justified by the enormously ex- I give below five examples from the supple-
panded palette, the increased tonal or instrumental mentary instructions or explanations given by
devices which characterize contemporary music. composers to assist the performers in 'realizing'
For example, the composer may wish to use the score:
magnetic-taped electronic sounds combined with Roman Haubenstock-Ramati: 'Mobile for Shake-
'live' sounds or, following the newly-developed speare' (Fig. 3):
syntax and structures of music, he may give an 'Each part is composed of several "areas". Each
important place to aleatory (chance) and improvisa- part reads its area in clockwise or counterclockwise
tional elements. These and other new elements order. The note patterns within a given area, how-
require a new kind of notation. These new ever, forms are always to be read from left to right. For
and new tools have caused consternation and thepro-
singer, each area corresponds to one line (10
test from many quarters, but they have found syllables) of a Sonnet. Each part may begin with
defenders and apologists as well. A recent publica- any area.'
tion [1] indicated that in the scores of thirty-fiveMaurizio Kagel: 'Pas de Cinq-Walking Scene'
contemporary composers only five or six still (Fig.use
4):
traditional notation, and even these scores have 'Parts of the performers A,B,C,D and E may be
been 'enriched' to a greater or lesser degree with taken by 5 male or 5 female actors. All participants
new indications. The others invent their own carry a walking stick.. . . The performers walk
graphic language out of whole cloth (andalong often, lanes constructed to form a regular penta-
when there are several works by the same goncom-
.... Footsteps and taps of the walking sticks are
poser, each of them is ruled by its own different the onlyandaudible occurrences.... A purely instru-
particular code). mental version for 5 percussionists (without actors)
Marc Pincherle, in a recent article [2], may has be the made using the rhythmic patterns.'
following comment on examples of the new nota-
Rudolf Komorous: 'Olympia' (Fig. 5):
tions: 'Some of these remind one of the signs 'This of the is a composition for two performers.

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408 John Evarts

19 20 21

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- - - - -

Motto lento acc. - molto - - . Vivo acc. molto - ..

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Moderato Moderato (sempre),

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816 RtRLRLRLRLRL R L RLRRLRLRL RLR L RLRLR L RLRLRLRLRLRL RLRLIXLRLRLRL

Fig. 4. Score for 'Pas de Cinq-Wandelszene', (page 7) by Maurizio Kagel. (Publisher: Universal
Edition, Vienna, 1965.)

olympia rudolf komorous

,r

snojotuoijl opnJ e!dwC io

Fig. 5. by
Score Rudolf Edition, Vienna,
Komorous.
for 'Olympia' (Publi
1966.)

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 The New Musical Notation-A Graphic Art ? 409

Fig. 6. Score for 'Odysee' (ballet) by Anestis Logothetis. (Publisher: Universal Edtion,
Vienna, 1964.)

However, it is possible to distribute the instruments which runs in vertical and horizontal segments....
among a larger number of performers.... The work Performers in three groups: one group plays the
is composed in a symmetrical form. The notation first element of motion-the "path". Simulta-
corresponds to this. When, during the performance, neously, the other two groups perform the fields to
after 2' 30", the middle of the work is reached, the the left and to the right of the "path".... The
score is reversed 180? for the second half. It is read
smallest number of players is nine; they may select
from left to right .... The sign "N" means free like their instruments according to their own wishes.'
birdsong'. Robert Moran: 'Four Visions' for harp, flute and
Anestis Logothetis: 'Odyssee' ballet (Fig. 6): string quartet (Fig. 7):
'The composition is built of two elements of 'The performers may begin at either side of the
motion. One is continuous and forms a "path" individual movements and read directly across to
29

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410 John Evarts

Fig. 7. Scorefor 'Four Visions', (page 4) by Robert Moran. Dedicated to Roman Haubenstock-
Ramati. (Publisher: Universal Edition, Vienna, 1963.)

the other side.... Each performer has a full score first place, it is extremely expensive to print the
and reads directly from each musical structure.' new scores, starting from scratch, so to speak, each
From these examples of instructions, the reader time. Therefore there is a real need for a standard-
can observe very easily the extent of freedom and ization of the new signs and indications. A French
responsibility given to the performers by some of conductor of new music only recently discovered
today's composers and also the importance of that, on an average, composers used five different
chance. It is inevitable that according to these signs to indicate the same effect.
scores there is no one work but, rather, an infinite The firm of Universal Editions of Vienna, in
number and a new one each time the score is 1959, put together an exhibit of these graphic
'realized'. notations, which moved from festival to festival of
For performers or conductors it requires infinitecontemporary music and was also shown at a
patience and study to understand and interpret theCongress of the International Music Council
Unesco House in Paris in 1960. Some observers
new signs and codes-patience and flexibility and
ingenuity. Pincherle's reactions to these difficultieswere outraged, some regarded the 'pretty pictures'
are pertinent: '. . . each new work implies for the as a passing mode; few were indifferent.
performers the study of a new solf&ge. For as many An article in Austrian Music Life in the autumn
works as there are on the programme of a concert of 1967, by Karl Roschitz, clarifies some of the
(of avant-garde music), there are as many systems purposes in the development of these modes of
of notation to assimilate. The machines, the notation. 'The essential condition of these
computers can do it: but for the musicians them- "optical transcriptions",' he writes, 'apart fro
selves it requires a superhuman effort. There is a
questions of passing fashion, is the constant desir
still more serious consequence: the reading ofto a find for the work to be performed and int
score written according to these systems does not preted a method of fixation, so to speak, "adap
to the material" and which thereby gives the inte
permit, except in rare cases, a mental hearing of the
work; from which it follows that cultivated ama- preter a clear, transparent and complete pictu
of the work as well as of the events and proble
teurs, capable of obtaining a good idea of the music
of Debussy, Stravinsky or Bartok, for example, by which are its "key"; a method of notation wh
reading a score are completely disoriented and precisely facilitates the reconstruction of the wor
helpless in the case of the new notations. And theintensifies it, gives a full account of it and, in sho
world of amateurs is the pond in which the pro- communicates a precise view of the composer
intentions'.
fessionals fish. Nothing is, therefore, more impor-
tant or more urgent than to discuss these new He points out, further, that these developments
notations'. of the late 'fifties have gone hand in hand 'with the
III renewed interest in the play of "mannered forms"
in literature, music and the plastic arts, parallel to
The new notations have been discussed and the Dadaism which abruptly became fashionable,
exposed to the music public in one form or anotherarriving at the cult of preciousness and all the
quite extensively in the last ten years and they numerous
will currents which suddenly exploded from
quite certainly be further discussed in the the depths of the common intellectual reservoir
future
-and particularly by music publishers. In the of Europe. The composers, avid for experimenta-

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 The New Musical Notation-A Graphic Art ? 411

I _n_

I I

I
I
I

i)-1IC)~I I,lt
il'l

Fig. 8. Score for 'December 52' by Earle Brown, 1952.

tion, discovered new phenomena of creation: of the pioneers of the new music, discusses the
noise, aleatoric moments and the element of relation between his music and the visual arts in a
chance, in general, the broadening of the field ofrecent article in Leonardo [3]. In the last century,
observation to include the elements of spontaneity, Mussorgsky wrote his imaginatively descriptive
action, decomposition, etc .... They broke definitely Pictures at an Exhibition; today, Gunther Schuller,
with the previous methods of notation.... The final the American composer, has written pieces inspired
consequence is that the performers are providedby Klee's paintings and Earle Brown, again, has not
with indications that give possibilities of individual only entitled a recent work 'Calder Mobile' but
choice and values of approach: an interpreter of aactually uses one for the percussionists to tap on
"musical graphic" score seeks only to produce in the course of the piece, as its red planes of metal
"sound pictures" analagous to the graphic score gyrate slowly on the stage.
before his eyes. And on these scores are indicated One may well wonder where it will all end. Will
only the purely approximative musical "evolutions the conservatories have to set up a series of courses
and developments"-evolutions intended to make in the future on how to read the scores of Bussotti,
the performer himself discover and make felt the Nono, Stockhausen, Brown (1st semester) and
facets and relations of sound, of perpetually new Boulez, Mefano, Amy, Reynolds and Bo Nilsson
"sound events"'. (2nd semester)? Will the composers of tomorrow
IV increasingly use 'graphic notation' or will they
settle down to some standardized lingua franca of
The relationship between some of these graphic notation which can be understood equally well in
scores and contemporary art are often striking. Buenos Aires, Rome, Cleveland or Moscow with-
An Earle Brown score, severely simple, resembles a out a 10-page preface of instructions to the per-
Mondrian (Fig. 8); others suggest Miro or Klee. former-conductor ?
Many of the composers feel a kinship with some of Or, on the other hand, is the creative act of
the painters of the recent past. Edgard Varese, one composing music going to be turned over more and

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412 John Evarts

more by 'the composer' to the improvisations of and satisfying worth can grow. And in the future,
instrumentalists reacting to graphic pictures? one may no longer speak of 'new music' but simply
Shall we in the future be reading that the Boris of the new 'sound events'.
Blatherwick Ensemble gave a splendid joint im- Nonetheless, these experiments have their interest
provisation on Picasso's 'Guernica'? There is a and may stimulate and strengthen later creative-
possibility that this may happen for at least a period ness: they reflect the desire to evolve new forms of
of time-and some composers even envisage more expression and new tools of communication and,
'audience participation' in the 'creation' of a work. in the new notations, they reveal a kinship with the
But I cannot believe that out of such fluidity of graphic artist which has never before existed so
intentions and efforts any masterpiece of lasting strongly.

REFERENCES

1. Karkoschka, Das Schriftbild der neuen Musik (The Graphic Picture of New Music
(Jella, G.F.R.: Moeck, 1966).
2. Pincherle, Les Nouvelles Litteraires (21 decembre 1967).
3. E. Varese and L. Alcopley, Edgard Varese on Music and Art, Leonardo I, 187 (1968

La nouvelle notation musicale, est-elle un art graphique?

Resume-Apres que les arts plastiques aient rompu avec le passe, la musique co
temporaine, elle aussi, a violemment rompu avec la tradition, durant les quara
dernieres annees. La gamme des possibilites du son s'est considerablement eten
-y compris dans le domaine des sons et des bruits produits electroniquement,
avec les theories et les techniques nouvelles, sont venus des changements aussi r
caux dans la notation musicale. Certains de ces changements ont ete fonctionne
essentiels, certains ont ete trop extremistes et exageres. Les illustrations-c'est a
les images graphiques utilisees comme partitions-montrent dans quelle mesur
liberte et la responsabilite sont laissees entre les mains des executants et du has
La ressemblance entre certaines des partitions et les ceuvres des peintres des dernie
decades, tels que Mondrian, Miro et Klee, est frappante. Cette nouvelle notatio
suscite beaucoup de commentaires, les uns violemment opposes, les autres favorables
Des expositions de 'partitions graphiques' ont ete organisees, de nombreux arti
analytiques ont ete ecrits; les editeurs protestent en raison du coiut beaucoup
eleve dans la production, a parfir de zero, de chaque partition; il n'existe auc
standard pour indiquer les effets speciaux; les chefs d'orchestre et les executan
trouvent la 'realisation' des partitions extremement difficile et laborieuse.
Un ecrivian, Karl Roschitz, clarifie le but de cette nouvelle notation graphique, en
ces termes: 'La condition essentielle de ces "transcriptions optiques", en dehors
questions de mode en evolution, est le constant desir de trouver, pour l'ceuv
executer et a interpreter, une methode de fixation, en quelque sorte "adapte
materiel", et qui par la donne a l'interprete une image claire, transparente et compl
de l'ceuvre, comme des evenements et des problemes qui en sont la "clef"... sur
partitions sont uniquement indiques les "evolutions et developpements" musica
d'une maniere purement approximative-ce qui a pour but de faire decouvrir
ressentir a l'interprete meme les facettes et les relations du son, des evenemen
d'un son perpetuellement renouvele.'
L'ecrivain demande si ces partitions graphiques ne peuvent etre regardees dan
futur avec un interet centre davantage sur leur attaction visuelle que sur la musique
qu'elles sont censees produire. Ces experiences peuvent stimuler et renforcer
creativite par la suite: elles refletent le desir d'elaborer de nouvelles formes d'expre
sion et de nouveaux outils de communication, et, dans les nouvelles notations, e
revelent une parente avec l'art graphique qui n'a jamais existe auparavant de man
si forte.

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