Graphic notation - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.

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Graphic notation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Graphic notation is the representation of music through the use of visual symbols outside the
realm of traditional music notation. Graphic notation evolved in the 1950s, and it is often used in
combination with traditional music notation.[1] Composers often rely on graphic notation in
experimental music, where standard musical notation can be ineffective.

Contents
1 History
2 Examples of graphic notation
3 Other composers who have used graphic notation
4 See also
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links

History
A common aspect of graphic notation is the use of symbols to convey information to the performer
about the way the piece is to be performed. These symbols first began to appear in the works of
avant-garde composers such as Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, Mauricio Kagel, György Ligeti
(Artikulation), Krzysztof Penderecki, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Iannis Xenakis, as well as the
works of experimental composers such as Earle Brown, John Cage, Morton Feldman, and Christian
Wolff during the 1950s and 60s.

After working as Stockhausen's assistant, Cornelius Cardew began work on a massive graphic
score, which he titled Treatise. The piece consists of 193 pages of highly abstract scores. The score
itself is almost its own separate work of art.

In 2008, Theresa Sauer edited a compendium featuring graphic scores by composers from over fifty
countries,[2] demonstrating how widespread the practice has become.

Examples of graphic notation

Graphic scores, in which the music is represented using symbols and illustrations:

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Hans-Christoph Steiner's score for Solitude (http://at.or.at/hans/solitude), created using Pure

Data's data structures.

This notation may be, like music on traditional staves, a time-pitch graph system. In the above
example, time is still represented by reading left-to-right.

Line staves showing relative pitch, with the actual pitches being decided upon performance.

Altered Notation can be seen in George Crumb's work[3] where he uses traditional notation
but presents the music on the page in a graphic or nontraditional manner such as spirals or
circles.[4]

Other composers who have used graphic notation

Practitioners of graphic notation include:

Aphex Twin Alfred Harth Roger Reynolds

Mark Applebaum[5] Panayiotis Kokoras Sven-David Sandström
Cathy Berberian Bruno Liberda Leon Schidlowsky
John Bergamo Helmut Lachenmann R. Murray Schafer[6]
Anthony Braxton Yuri Landman Netty Simons
André Boucourechliev Anestis Logothetis Stuart Saunders Smith
Herbert Brün Robert Moran Wadada Leo Smith
Randolph Coleman Luigi Morleo Juan Maria Solare
Brian Eno Conlon Nancarrow Allen Strange
Eric Ewazen Roberto Paci Dalò Andersen Viana
Jerry Goldsmith Emanuel Dimas de Melo Jennifer Walshe
Michail Goleminov Pimenta John Williams
Jonny Greenwood Randy Raine-Reusch John Zorn
Barry Guy Bernard Rands

See also

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Graphic notation - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic_notation

Eye music
Oramics

References
1. Pryer, Anthony. "graphic notation." The Oxford Companion to Music. Ed. Alison Latham. Oxford Music
Online. 12 Apr. 2011
2. Sauer, Theresa. Notations 21. Mark Batty Publisher. p. 010, 2008.
3. http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/v46/n06/CrumbSpiral.gif
4. http://lens.lib.uchicago.edu/?hreciid=%7Clibrary/marc/uc%7C2060598
5. http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/mark_applebaum_the_mad_scientist_of_music.html
6. R. Murray Schafer (http://artsalive.ca/en/mus/greatcomposers/schafer/bio.html) at National Arts Centre
ArtsAlive web site. Retrieved 2011-11-17.

Further reading
Cage, John, and Alison Knowles (1969). Notations. New York: Something Else Press.
Lieberman, David 2006. Game Enhanced Music Manuscript (http://portal.acm.org
/citation.cfm?id=1174472). In GRAPHITE '06: Proceedings of the 4th International
Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Australasia and South East
Asia, ACM Press, Melbourne, Australia, 245 - 250.
Sauer, Theresa (2009). Notations 21. New York: Mark Batty Publisher. ISBN
978-0-9795546-4-3
David Schidlowsky (ed.) (2011) Musikalische Grafik—Graphic Music: León Schidlowsky.
Berlin: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag. ISBN 978-3-86573-620-8.

External links
Pictures of Music at Northwestern University (http://www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu
/picturesofmusic/)
Bergstroem-Nielsen, Carl: Experimental improvisation and notation practise 1945-1999;
Experimental improvisation and notation practise, addenda 2000-
(http://www20.brinkster.com/improarchive/legno1uk.htm). Online bibliographies.
Real-time interpretation of Rainer Wehinger visualization (https://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=71hNl_skTZQ&feature=related) of György Ligeti's electronic work Artikulation
An online collection of graphic scores curated by the New York Miniaturist Ensemble
(http://nyme.org/graphic.html)
Notations21, an anthology of innovative musical notation (http://www.notations21.net
/viewscores.html)
Raine-Reusch's page showing more than 20 graphic scores (http://www.asza.com/r3sc.shtml)
HighC: a graphic score-based composition system (http://highc.org/) inspired by Iannis
Xenakis' UPIC system.

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IanniX : A graphical real-time open-source sequencer for digital art (http://www.iannix.org/)

Cuaderno de Yokohama by Llorenç Barber (http://rwm.macba.cat/en/quaderns-
audio?id_capsula=577) The complete series of 17 graphic scores that Barber created in
Yokohama (Japan) in 2005. Ràdio Web MACBA (http://rwm.macba.cat/): Barcelona, 2009.

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