Samantha Krukowski asks, "Can anyone recommend some composers who
drew their scores instead of using traditional musical notation?"
--
Dear Samantha,
The tradition of composers who drew scores goes back to the 1400s and
1500s. This was a time when music notation was not yet solidified.
Music also had strong relations to the concepts of philosophy, art,
and science. The quadrivium of the medieval university curriculum in
the liberal arts consisted of arithmetic, music, geometry, and
astronomy. This was the higher curriculum following the trivium of
rhetoric, logic, and grammar.
Many of the early natural philosophers linked their discoveries to
musical conceptions. These were the predecessors of physicists and
other natural scientists. Johannes Kepler, a founder of modern
astronomy and physics, originally couched his discoveries in terms of
the music of the spheres, and later sought to fit his planetary model
into a model of the Platonic solids. This was an era in which the
boundaries between speculative music as a form of philosophy and the
other arts and sciences could be quite ambiguous.
Many of the medieval philosophers and alchemists were also
mathematicians, theologians, and musicians. Thus, you will find
musical artifacts in the works of such figures as Robert Fludd,
Athanasius Kircher, John Dee, and others. Some of the works of
metaphysical poets and pattern poets such as George Herbert also
crossed the boundaries into music.
In the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, a
tradition of drawn scores emerged in connection with the revolt
against what had become traditional and academic composition.
This flourished dramatically in the work of some artists connected
with Futurism, Dadaism, and Surrealism, where artists often ventured
into music of different kinds - or at least into the idea of scores.
The notion of the score began also to include not only drawings, but
also other forms of non-traditional score including artifacts,
collages, and typography.
Some of the better-known examples of new scores include Erratum
Musicale by Marcel Duchamp and the Ursonata of Kurt Schwitters.
In the 1950s, a new tradition of drawn scores emerged in the circle
of composer and artists associated with John Cage. This was well
developed by the 1960s, and it included many of the composers and
artists active in what was to be labeled intermedia, and with the
artists and composers active in the international intermedia circle
around Fluxus.
The first great collection of drawn scores and intermedia scores
published in book form was John cage's Notations anthology. It was
edited by Cage, designed by Alison Knowles, and published by Dick
Higgins.
Cage, John, ed. Notations. New York: Something Else Press, 1969.
The complete collection of scores from which the book was drawn is
now housed at Northwestern University. You can learn more about the
Notations Collection at
http://www.library.northwestern.edu/music/about.html
Another major source for drawn scores and innovative composing was
Source magazine. Stanley Lunetta and Larry Austin edited source. Two
or three issues had guest editors. John Cage did one, and I did
another.
The archive of Source will be rich in work by the composers you seek.
This should be particularly useful resource for you, as this archive
is now housed at North Texas University in Denton, near Fort Worth
and Dallas. That is a ways from Austin, but not too far. The rich
material in this archive would justify an excursion and a few days of
concentrated archival work.
http://www.library.unt.edu/music/speccol.htm
Much of the work in the 1960s crossed over the boundaries of media as
much as the work of the alchemists and philosopher-musicians did. If
you follow the leads in some key magazines and journals, they will
help you to identify the composers you seek.
In addition to Source, these jourmals have published drawn scores or
articles on drawn scores:
Ballade (Oslo, Norway) edited by Morten Eide Petersen
The Composer (Hamilton, Ohio)
Freibord. (Vienna, Austria) edited by Gerhard Jaschke
Best regards,
Ken
--
Ken Friedman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design
Department of Leadership and Organization
Norwegian School of Management
Visiting Professor
Advanced Research Institute
School of Art and Design
Staffordshire University
drew their scores instead of using traditional musical notation?"
--
Dear Samantha,
The tradition of composers who drew scores goes back to the 1400s and
1500s. This was a time when music notation was not yet solidified.
Music also had strong relations to the concepts of philosophy, art,
and science. The quadrivium of the medieval university curriculum in
the liberal arts consisted of arithmetic, music, geometry, and
astronomy. This was the higher curriculum following the trivium of
rhetoric, logic, and grammar.
Many of the early natural philosophers linked their discoveries to
musical conceptions. These were the predecessors of physicists and
other natural scientists. Johannes Kepler, a founder of modern
astronomy and physics, originally couched his discoveries in terms of
the music of the spheres, and later sought to fit his planetary model
into a model of the Platonic solids. This was an era in which the
boundaries between speculative music as a form of philosophy and the
other arts and sciences could be quite ambiguous.
Many of the medieval philosophers and alchemists were also
mathematicians, theologians, and musicians. Thus, you will find
musical artifacts in the works of such figures as Robert Fludd,
Athanasius Kircher, John Dee, and others. Some of the works of
metaphysical poets and pattern poets such as George Herbert also
crossed the boundaries into music.
In the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, a
tradition of drawn scores emerged in connection with the revolt
against what had become traditional and academic composition.
This flourished dramatically in the work of some artists connected
with Futurism, Dadaism, and Surrealism, where artists often ventured
into music of different kinds - or at least into the idea of scores.
The notion of the score began also to include not only drawings, but
also other forms of non-traditional score including artifacts,
collages, and typography.
Some of the better-known examples of new scores include Erratum
Musicale by Marcel Duchamp and the Ursonata of Kurt Schwitters.
In the 1950s, a new tradition of drawn scores emerged in the circle
of composer and artists associated with John Cage. This was well
developed by the 1960s, and it included many of the composers and
artists active in what was to be labeled intermedia, and with the
artists and composers active in the international intermedia circle
around Fluxus.
The first great collection of drawn scores and intermedia scores
published in book form was John cage's Notations anthology. It was
edited by Cage, designed by Alison Knowles, and published by Dick
Higgins.
Cage, John, ed. Notations. New York: Something Else Press, 1969.
The complete collection of scores from which the book was drawn is
now housed at Northwestern University. You can learn more about the
Notations Collection at
http://www.library.northwestern.edu/music/about.html
Another major source for drawn scores and innovative composing was
Source magazine. Stanley Lunetta and Larry Austin edited source. Two
or three issues had guest editors. John Cage did one, and I did
another.
The archive of Source will be rich in work by the composers you seek.
This should be particularly useful resource for you, as this archive
is now housed at North Texas University in Denton, near Fort Worth
and Dallas. That is a ways from Austin, but not too far. The rich
material in this archive would justify an excursion and a few days of
concentrated archival work.
http://www.library.unt.edu/music/speccol.htm
Much of the work in the 1960s crossed over the boundaries of media as
much as the work of the alchemists and philosopher-musicians did. If
you follow the leads in some key magazines and journals, they will
help you to identify the composers you seek.
In addition to Source, these jourmals have published drawn scores or
articles on drawn scores:
Ballade (Oslo, Norway) edited by Morten Eide Petersen
The Composer (Hamilton, Ohio)
Freibord. (Vienna, Austria) edited by Gerhard Jaschke
Best regards,
Ken
--
Ken Friedman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design
Department of Leadership and Organization
Norwegian School of Management
Visiting Professor
Advanced Research Institute
School of Art and Design
Staffordshire University