2023 Athanasopoulos Kitsios 8389 25836 1 PB

IMS-RASMB, Series Musicologica Balcanica 4, 2023.
e-ISSN: 2654-248X
Performance and the Score: Cross-Cultural Perspectives

on Sonic Representations
by George Athanasopoulos & George Kitsios
https://doi.org/10.26262/smb.v0i4.8389
©2023 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons
Attribution NonCommercial NoDerivatives International 4.0 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-
nd/4.0/ (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the
articles is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. The copyright
for eventually included manuscripts belongs to the manuscript holders.
Athanasopoulos & Kitsios, Performance and the Score…
Performance and the Score: an Ethnomusicological

Perspective
George Athanasopoulos and George Kitsios
Abstract: Through semi-structured interviews spanning over six years and in three different
countries, this article explores the way performers with different musical backgrounds
interact with music notations of Western and non-Western origin. The aim is to highlight the
participants’ cultural perspectives and intellectual mindsets which influence their logic of
what a musical score consists of, and how it is to be addressed in performance. The
interviews presented here reveal that the relationship between performers and the written
aspect of music is not uniform, even within practitioners of comparably similar music
traditions, as the role of music and its textual representation in themselves are not uniform in
their goals and functional mode during a musical performance.
Keywords: Performance, performance studies, music notation, music score, cross-cultural,

visual representation of music.
1. Introduction
In his book Between Process and Product: Music and/as Performance, Cook1 considers the
score in Western music to be a script for musicians’ interaction, arguing that the
representation of the musical work in historical and critical writing does little justice
to the performance-oriented perception of music. The focus is placed largely, if not
exclusively, on composers and a well-established repertory of compositions, despite
the huge market for virtuoso performers who could do more to rediscover works
through innovative performances. Although Western standard notation (henceforth
– WSN) in terms of structure, began as an analogue system of pitch and duration in
time with little else information presented, in time, descriptive elements began to
1Nicholas Cook, “Between process and product: Music and/as performance,” Music Theory Online 7,
no. 2 (2001), 1-31.
4
appear in the score as a result of the establishment of a serious composer-publisher

relationship. The earliest musical notations drew on techniques of voice modulation
in spoken language, and through a general representation of melodic contour served
to aid singers, who had their melodies committed to memory. Rather than precise
indications of pitch height, neumes communicated detailed information about
phrasing.2 However, the visualization of melodic contour in WSN then afforded the
possibility of indicating precise pitch through a systematization of this visualizing
capacity. This versatile, systemic approach adds an extremely significant bonus to the
written aspect of music in that it externalizes musical thought which can be applied
to different instruments, deeming it “a cognitive change brought about by the
extensive use of musical notation – and the new attitudes thereby developed as to
how such a technique might be exploited”.3 At first, with crescendo and decrescendo
markings, the gradual dismissal of basso continuo; then, Beethoven’s tempi
indications through the use of the Maelzel metronome; Mahler’s string indications
for violinists; Schoenberg’s, Berg’s and Webern’s indications of chief and secondary
parts (Haupstimme and Nebenstimme); and later on Xenakis’ reconciliation of the
linear perception of music with relativistic views of time, created precision scores
that included challenging directives even for the most accomplished orchestras.4
These actions suggest that a significant number of composers during the last two
centuries considered that the link between written music and sound needed to be
reaffirmed, resulting in improvements in notation and permitting less influence and
impact (in the sense of free improvisation or expression) performers, unless directly
instructed and given permission to improvise. Thus, gradually, the input of the
performer was removed and music notation was turned into an ideology, and not
just an instrument of communication.5 However, it was not just the composer-
publisher relationship that led to the elevation of the score. Western art music and
music theory of the last three centuries in general have evolved in such a rapid way,
partly because of its modes of representation, its inclusion into formal musical
training as part of the school curriculum, and its use in religious liturgical canon
2Susan Rankin, “Capturing Sound: The Notation of Language,” Cantus scriptus: Technologies of
Medieval Song, ed. Emma Dillon and Lynn Ransom (Piscataway NJ: Gorgias Press, 2012), 10–41.
3Susan Rankin, “On the Treatment of Pitch in Early Music Writing,” Early Music History 30 (2011),
105–175:108.
4Stanley Boorman, “The musical text,” in Rethinking music, edited by Nicholas Cook and Mark Everist
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999/2001), 403-423. José A. Bowen, “Finding the music in
musicology: Performance history and musical works,” in Rethinking music, 424-451.
5 Lydia Goehr, The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works: An Essay in the Philosophy of Music: An Essay in
the Philosophy of Music (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992).
5
among others. Its usability and overarching influence can be justified because it has
become the default mode of notation through a variety of means – from publishing
companies and music education textbooks to contemporary notation computer
programmes. The emerging power of the score, along with the growing self-
confidence and independence of composers which had its beginnings in German
romanticism, resulted in a mindset change of the composer’s status as to who was in
control of the music. Performers and composers alike felt this impact – and,
occasionally, as will be demonstrated in the following paragraphs, still do today. It
has to be mentioned, however, that this process is also partly influenced by the
existence of an Oral traditional system of tuition (which completed the picture and
the information supposed to be inherent in the notational system of early European
music) and the musical performance.
However, the performers’ and practitioners’ mindsets may allow for a much wider
viewpoint in the interpretation of a musical work. Two general tendencies seem to
prevail: setting its use as an information storage tool, the first tendency is that some
performers see the score as guidelines and seek new ways of interpreting it, while
others see the score as sacred and not to be tampered with, as any variations may
lead to inauthentic experiences. However, the division seems not to take into account
two parameters: first, the very nature of music comprehension takes place within a
specific cultural context, and its ability to evoke emotions is often bound within its
audience. Second, there is more than one type of notational system, and not all
systems function in the same way.6 Other non-Western musical cultures may have a
comparably different relationship with the written component of music which may
not only vary in structure but also fulfill a considerably different role than WSN. As
emotions themselves are largely products of culture, and their structure and
expression are bound to learned social rules,7 it is perhaps a fallacy to expect
contemporary musicians not to attempt to break with conformity and try to discover
new methods of performance, so as to be able to connect with contemporary
audiences of mixed cultural and musical backgrounds. As such, Western perceptions
of music notation seem to be rather apart from the musical reality of the world they
seemingly represent, and by no means do they stand as a proxy for non-Western
musics. Although it was initially thought that musical notation rather quickly came
to determine the musical tradition of its origin, this seemed to happen mostly in the
West. In most other places, the musical text retained its archival and recording role,
6 For a detailed description of possible notational systems, see Kurt Stone, Music notation in the
twentieth century: a practical guidebook. New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1980.
7Hazel Markus and Shinobu Kitayama. “Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and
motivation,” Psychological review 98, no. 2 (1991), 224.
6
and as such it was primarily used as a reference and mnemonic aid to the Oral
tradition; it never substituted the role of the tutor and was not often used directly for
composition.8
For this reason, our first aim with this paper is to examine the relationship between
performers and notated music across different disciplines and cultures. We want to
depict different practitioners’ interactions and perspectives on three very different
notational systems, and the role that these play within their muso-cultural setting.
This is done as an attempt to capture, and empirically apply a theoretical approach
towards an “ethnomusicology of notation”,9 not from a historical/theoretical point of
view, but based on empirical testimonies. We chose to collect performers’ views with
varying backgrounds in training and cultural background, which we captured
through semi-structured interviews. Our participants were selected from three
countries: the United Kingdom; Greece, where training in Western music has been
obligatory in the school curriculum since 1914;10 and Japan, a country in which music
education has been part of the school curriculum since 1919. 11 All countries have
long-established and diverse folk/native music traditions, some of which have their
own notational systems, such as the Byzantine chant notational system in Greece,
and shōga notational system, among many others, in Japan. It was deemed necessary
to focus on participants originating from locations with long-established traditions in
Western musical education not only through private conservatories but where music
training would be part of the school curriculum.
While it should be acknowledged that different notational systems from varying
traditions and cultures may be difficult to compare and contrast with each other,12 it
falls within the aims of this paper to explore an analysis orientation that is usually
overlooked in past studies focusing on how performers view scores: the goal is,
through the following semi-structured interviews, to inspect the formation process of
opinion on scores by investigating practitioners’ views on the matter of how notation
works within their musical practice, rather than musicologist-oriented views. These
8
Walter Kaufmann, Musical notations of the orient: Notational systems of continental, east, south and central
Asia (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1967).
9
Floris Schuiling, “Notation Cultures: Towards an Ethnomusicology of Notation,” Journal of the Royal
Musical Association 144.2 (2019), 429-458.
10 Ioannis Simos, Musical Education in contemporary and modern Greece (Athens: Orpheus, 2004).
11Masafumi Ogawa, “Japan: Music as a tool for moral education?,” in The origins and foundations of
music education, edited by Gordon Cox and Robin Stevens, 205-220 (London: Continuum International
Publishing Group, 2010), 205-220.
12Bruno Nettl, “World music in the twentieth century: a survey of research on western influence,”
Acta Musicologica 58, no. Fasc. 2 (1986), 360-373.
7
revisions can be added as a reflection on the historical studies in music notation,

while at the same time, they can be used to clarify the reliability and uniqueness of
this case analysis of performance and the score in general. Such context-based overall
analyses of interviews can help clarify and dispel the formulation of (mainly Western
musicological) exaggerated approaches to written music, as well as see how
performers with different cultural backgrounds interact with scores within their
music traditions. The reasons behind selecting these specific participant groups are
that they represent significantly different performance practices, and as such, their
systems of notation are rather specified to serve to construct forms of musical
interaction ideally within the cultural framework that they have been developed for.
Their objective, as it will become apparent, is to mediate performed identities and
inform notions of music as a cultural practice, making vastly different demands on
musical knowledge, and conditioning practitioners’ creative agency. In short, we aim
to explore how three groups of musicians, originating from vastly different musical
traditions and backgrounds, construct notation cultures. This attempt may not be as
straightforward as it seems, as even the concept of music notation itself is extremely
varied among different performance cultures – and the study of performance is
extremely diverse, even within the same genre. The relationship between notational
systems and the underlying cultural philosophy of the music (and not just
practitioner viewpoints on it) is also another aspect that needs to be taken into
consideration. According to Seeger, two classifications may arise: prescriptive and
descriptive, where prescriptive notation can be defined as ‘a blueprint of how a
specific piece of music shall be made to sound’, while descriptive notation is ‘a report
of how a specific performance of any music sounds’.13 Although Seeger’s separation
provides some insight, he does not take into account that notational systems
(regardless of their origin) may contain elements both prescriptive and descriptive, as
well as directional signs. Examples are early plainchant, Shōmyō chants, and graphic
scores might fit the description of both terms equally well. Although we
acknowledge that one of the primal reasons for the existence of notational systems in
the past was for prescribing how a piece of music is to sound and preserving it as
such, on this occasion we will avoid Seeger’s dichotomy and opt for letting
practitioners speak for themselves as to how they view the respective notational
systems that they use.
13Charles Seeger, “Prescriptive and Descriptive Music-Writing,” The Musical Quarterly, 44.2 (1958),
184-195.
8
2. Three perspectives on notation: Western classical music, Byzantine Music, and

Noh Theatre
The principal method of the collection of qualitative material was semi-structured

interviews using non-probability judgment quota sampling carried out on-site in
Edinburgh (U.K.), Thessaloniki (Greece), Kyoto, and Tokyo (Japan). Common
requirements for all performers were to be over the age of 18, be of Grade 8 level or
equivalent in any musical instrument have an active performance career of eight
years minimum, and with the ability to demonstrate a high level of proficiency in
any instrument of their own choice. All data were collected on-site by the first
author. Participants provided verbal consent before the beginning of each interview.
The first group consisted of 25 musicians (15F) of British nationality and cultural
background, mean age = 23.5 yrs; SD = 4.2 yrs; r: 19-37 yrs; mean age of beginning
formal training in a musical instrument: 6.7 yrs (SD = 1.7 yrs, r: 5-11 yrs). Performers
belonging to this group were enlisted in Edinburgh, Scotland during the spring of
2011 through a call at the University of Edinburgh EUSA website and through
notices on the Reid School of Music noticeboard. The second group consisted of 19
Greek music performers (11F), Mean age = 23.5 yrs; SD = 4.9 yrs; r: 19-36 yrs; mean
age of beginning formal training in a musical instrument = 9.1 yrs (SD = 3.8 yrs; r: 4-
20 yrs). Data were collected in the winter of 2014. Nine of the participants were active
in Byzantine Chant performance practice and familiar with Byzantine neumatic
notation. Most participants were recruited at the School of Music of the Aristotle
University of Thessaloniki and belonged to the group Mousiko Politropo, which
focuses almost exclusively on traditional Greek music through theatrical and
chorographical performative representation. The third group consisted of 22
Japanese music performers (12F), mean age = 27.7 yrs; SD = 7.1 yrs; r: 18–51 yrs; mean
age of formal training in a musical instrument = 8.7 yrs (SD = 9.4 yrs; r: 4–15 yrs). The
participants were familiar with a form of Japanese Traditional Notation (JTN) of the
Noh theatre tradition, either for the Nohkan (flute used in Japanese Noh theatre), the
tsuzumi drums, or the vocal part of the “chorus” ensemble. This style of JTN follows
the principles of kanji script in terms of directionality (vertically top-to-bottom).
Participants were recruited at the Kyoto City University of the Arts and the Tokyo
Geijutsu Daigaku. All the above musicians were exposed to Western music education
first, before encountering the traditional music culture and notational systems of
their own countries. It has to be noted that musicians familiarize themselves with a
wide variety of musical styles throughout their lives, experiencing sounds of many
other cultures – this is particularly true in today’s modern era through the
advancement of technology and the wide availability of music through streaming
services and open-source platforms. Even in countries with minimal interaction with
9
the outside world (music in the era of transculturalism is not confined within
geographical boundaries, so such settings are becoming even rarer as we speak)
exposure to non-native music is a fact, thus changing the music landscape of much of
the world in recent years. Western musical practices, and Western culture in total,
have been noted to transform traditional societies and replace or modify existing
norms.14
2.1. Western Perspectives: United Kingdom
Similar to written speech, one of the primal reasons for WSN to emerge was the need
for a mnemonic tool for a musical tradition well in place.15 It is important to note that
in the eighteenth century, performances were often directed by the composer of the
work, assisting in the interpretation of the score and even providing commentary
when necessary. Strict abiding to the score developed in the nineteenth century with
the notion of the letzter Hand as mentioned by Goethe and others before and after
him.16 Dreyfus, for example, argues that the term turns the score into a vessel for the
composer’s genius, with hidden mysteries to be discovered and revealed.17 This in
effect led in the past to what Peter Kivy referred to as “composer worship” 18 - a
common concept in European art music in later centuries past – and in effect as far
away as possible from the notion of finding and establishing the sense of community
through performance by drawing meaning as a collaborative process. Though steps
have been taken to introduce Western art music to contemporary audiences around
the world, shaking off the belief that the “true meaning” of this performance culture
was only meant for the selected few initiates was a task in itself. This could not have
been better surmised by the opening sentence of Peter Bailey’s article titled
“Conspiracies of meaning: music-hall and the knowingness of popular culture,”
namely that “Knowingness might be defined as what everybody knows, but some
14Bruno Nettl, The Western impact on world music: Change, adaptation, and survival (New York: Schirmer
Books, 1985). Id., “World music”.
15Thomas Forrest Kelly, Capturing Music: The Story of Notation (New York: WW Norton & Company,
2014).
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goethe's Werke: vollständige Ausgabe letzter Hand, vol. 25 (Stuttgart und
16
Tübingen, 1828).
17Laurence Dreyfus, “Beyond the Interpretation of Music,” Dutch Journal of Music Theory 12 (2007),
253-272.
18Peter Kivy, Authenticities: Philosophical reflections on musical performance (Ithaca: Cornell University
Press, 1998), 138.
10
know better than others.”19 This is by no means a generally accepted viewpoint in the
twenty-first century, nor is it a common stance in musicology today.20 (Cook 2017).
This belief had led in the past to the romantic idea that the composer creates a final,
non-negotiable, immortal, divine text as a final product, placing it outside the circle
of symbolic interaction (Blumer, 1962) in which objects are constantly modified and
re-interpreted by users (in this case, performers) and society in general. In his 1998
work, Christopher Small also highlighted an interesting viewpoint regarding
Western art music, that it “embodies a kind of society that does not allow for mutual
participation of all peoples because it is based upon works, not interactions” (Small
1998, 11).
Most performers interviewed consider that WSN imposes a certain level of
unwarranted restrictions on the user. TM, composer, and performer (violinist) based
in Edinburgh says in the following interview excerpt with the first author (Int):
TM: […] I know from personal experience that when I write music, I think in
terms of notation, um, and I can see the notes written down on paper as I
write, and that sort of informs me during the composition process. So my
composing is very much, and performance, is very much influenced by the
notation, the method of notation, and it may be that the music of another
culture that uses a different notation is inspired by that.
Int: What power do you think that notation holds over a musical piece, is the
musical work adequately presented through its notation? In relevance to what
you just said.
TM: […] I remember once composing by writing down, and also by using a
music programme on the computer where you write the music on the stave
and it will play back to you what you’ve just written, and I was advised to
move away from that style of composition because my work was becoming too
focused on what note follows what, and that, you know, that semi-quaver
should match with that one, with that dotted semi-quaver to, to make up the
bar, and that sort of thing, and maybe to use my ears more. I think it can
become a visual style of composition when you’re trying to work out which
notes go on what stave and how it follows, and you know, the visual stave of
music. I’m not sure if I answered your question actually!
Int: Do you think that the style and method of notation influence the musical
work?
19Peter Bailey, “Conspiracies of meaning: music-hall and the knowingness of popular culture,” Past &
Present 144, no. 1 (1994), 138-170.
20 Nicholas Cook, Music, performance, meaning: selected essays (London: Routledge, 2017).
11
TM: Yes….
Int: All right, in which w- [Interrupted].
TM: Actually I just want to qualify that by saying “Only if it’s written with
notation in mind”.
After the change of attitude towards the musical canon and the rise of graphic scores
in the 20th century, performers have broadened their perception and attitude toward
the interpretation of the musical score, as they have become acquainted with other
musical styles and traditions which do not incorporate any form of notation, or in
which music notation does not play such an integral part of the musical canon. B.E., a
performer (classically-trained percussionist) says:
Int: What power do you think that notation holds over a musical piece?
B.E: Depends on what you’re looking at.
Int: In the sense that, is the [musical] piece the score, its performance, or -
[Interrupted].
B.E: I don’t think the piece is the notation; notation is just a simple one way
of representing the musical intention of the composer…I mean…yeah…I
mean…there’s plenty of other cultures which don’t use it [notation] at all, or
you know, there are people like jazz musicians or people who may be well
versed in notation but that’s not how they choose to communicate with each
other anymore…you know they write a score and they’re like “we’re just
gonna impro”…or you know, improvising musicians they’re gonna improvise
in, in, um, in G and they’ll do that for ten minutes, you know, and that
doesn’t use a score, and still they know what they’re gonna do…
Int: It’s a very interesting point that you’re bringing up, in this sense …so
how do you feel if I asked whether notation could hold power over a performer
of a piece?
B.E: Not really, I mean I can choose to ignore the notation.
Int: What do you think the composer would think of this, then?
B.E: Depends, I suppose on what sort of person he’s like (laughs)…no, no. but
I mean like, nine times out of ten or like, ninety-nine percent of performances
of no-no-notated pieces of music the composer is not present. So, you know,
even though it says, you know (fake voice) “you’re supposed to follow the score
exactly”, and a, a performer may be brought up and educated in a way that
(fake voice) “for scores there you’re supposed to follow exactly unless
otherwise indicated” you still have the choice to completely ignore it. I don’t
think a lot of people would [ignore it]…but that’s still your choice, you can
12
completely veer off it, or you’d be like, you know…re-contextualizing the

score. The score is like, an indication of intent, you follow the intent, or you
can completely throw it out the window.
This opinion expressed here may suggest that the role of the composer is bound not
only to the musical tradition itself but also to the social context of the music. In
Compositions, Scores, Performances, Meanings, Leech-Wilkinson further draws our
attention to the fact that the possible psychological advantages that musicians have
of being able to justify their choices in performance by attributing them to the
composer “seem far to outweigh the uncertain likelihood of critical praise that might
or might not accrue to them were there no higher authority to whom they could look
for support”.21 The issue of contextualization on the ideals of authenticity versus
modification in musical editions and publishing has also been thoroughly discussed
by Kelly (2006).22 Notice how in the next section, performer and piano teacher LAH
does not fail to mention the psychological influence and perspective of the letzter
Hand concerning the era of the musical work performed:
Int: What power do you think the notation holds over a musical piece? Is the
musical work adequately surmised by its notation?
LAH: I think it would depend on which period it came from, um, stuff from
the Baroque and Renaissance era is very strictly rhythmic to follow and the
harmony is there, whereas if you go to a piece of sort of, twentieth-century, or
even, even romantic stuff where it says rubato, that’s, there’s no exact way of
doing rubato in a piece, everyone’s gonna do it differently I think. A performer
can interpret that in any way he or she wishes, um, I don’t know. It’s like, um,
it’s like what the composer is like trying to get across, it’s just indications, it’s
just like, you’re the performer, you’re playing, but the composer wishes to say
that.
Int: Based on that, what power do you think the notation holds over a
performer?
LAH: Um, quite a lot in the sense cos that, um, people are always like,
European, other people performing and if it’s not right to them, you know a bit
like, they’re always like, [fake voice] “Hah, you know it’s not the music, so
yeah, it’s not to the notation, it’s not right”.
21Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, “Compositions, scores, performances, meanings,” Music Theory Online 18

(2012).
22Elaine Kelly, “Evolution versus Authenticity: Johannes Brahms, Robert Franz, and Continuo Practice
in the Late Nineteenth Century,” 19th-Century Music 30, no. 2, (2006), 182-204.
13
In another excerpt, T.F, performer (violinist), sees music performance as a narrative

to be told: composers may use their way to express it, but performers may add their
creative input into the story, to the point that the result may be very different from
the original in every aspect,23 particularly in relation to the tempo of the work in
question:24
Int: What power do you think notation holds over a performer if it does at all?
T.F: I think that in, um, there’s a tradition in what you might call classical
music, Western classical music, to…that the notation is the piece of music
itself. Um, so you start by learning every note as it is written and following
the dynamics and the expressions written on that piece of paper, that piece of
paper is what you perform. Although from that point, once you know the piece
as it has been written, there is room for interpretation and expression in that
piece of music. But I think, um, for me as a performer, um, I use the, I use the
written notation to work out how to play something. Then when I perform it I
interpret it as I choose.
Int: So, you think that interpretation is a different matter from what’s
actually being scored.
T.F: I think so. I think it’s like reading a story. To know a story, you read, and
you can then understand the story. But then to tell a story, it’s very different
and, you may choose to substitute words, or, you may tell it with different
emphasis, or you may, you know, um, it’s, when you tell a story it’s, it’s you
may not be accurately copying what you’ve read, but you’re interpreting it,
um, as, as you understand it on a different level.
The idea of the musical narrative that T.F. highlights is that personal expression of
the work may be the defining factor in a performance, and this is not something that
could be easily presented through a musical score. The actual performance could be
seen as the personal interpretation of a composer’s idea. At the same time, this brings
another aspect into focus: understating what the music “means” suggests a cultural
understanding of the musical narrative to produce equally culturally meaningful
interpretations of the music. This, however, is highly disputed, as not only the
performance practice has changed and is still changing over the years since the
23Heinrich Schenker, The Masterwork in Music: A Yearbook, vol. 1, ed. W. Drabkin, trans. I. Bent et al.
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1925, repr. 1994), 111.
24 Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, “Early recorded violin playing: evidence for what?,” Spielpraxis der
Saiteninstrumente in der Romantik: Bericht des Symposiums in Bern, 18.–19. November 2006, eds. Claudio
Bacciagaluppi, Roman Brotbeck, and Anselm Gerhard, Musikforschung der Hochschule der Künste
Bern, vol. 3 (Schliengen: Argus, 2011), 9-22.
14
original canon was set, but it is also highly debatable what the “original meaning”
was which may be hiding in the notes in the first place 25 – at least for Western art
music. This understanding should not be confused with the overall emotional
evaluation of the musical piece in question, though those familiar with a specific
musical culture have a clear advantage over others who are unfamiliar with it in
emotion recognition tasks.26 Some clarification is necessary here: pragmatic
interpretation, and in turn, emotional responses to a musical work are not necessarily
interlinked. For example, listeners may find Indian music or Byzantine chants highly
moving, without understanding their structures, and cases of cross-cultural
understanding of basic emotions expressed through music have been the focus of
interest in music psychology.27 Similarly, audiences may find serial music not to their
taste, even if they understand its structure and goals.
Another facet that may require further clarification is the aspect of notation itself.
WSN, is subjected to the processes of change. The way it is organised, distributed,
utilized, and maintained by its users, who may be of Western and non-Western
backgrounds and with classical or non-classical music training, is indicative of its
versatility. However, the system does not have much success when it tries to portray
non-Western music styles which are entrained in their own notational traditions.
Before we venture on, it is important to clarify that our goal is not to broadly assess
the interaction between the Western musical score and performers in general, but
rather how performers interact specifically with scores of their own musical cultures.
We will now examine non-WSN perspectives of practitioners’ interactions with the
written aspect of music.
2.2 The geographical “in-betweener”: Byzantine liturgical music
The display of music in notation may not simply be a documentation of something

which potentially may result in sound, but itself a performance of that music. This
resonates clearly with liturgical music of the Eastern Orthodox rite, among others of
25Tia DeNora, After Adorno: rethinking music sociology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
Aaron Ridley, The philosophy of music: Theme and variations (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,
2004).
26Petri Laukka, Tuomas Eerola, Nutankumar S. Thingujam, Teruo Yamasaki, and Grégory Beller,
“Universal and culture-specific factors in the recognition and performance of musical affect
expressions,” Emotion 13, no. 3 (2013), 434.
Thomas Fritz, Sebastian Jentschke, Nathalie Gosselin, Daniela Sammler, Isabelle Peretz, Robert
27
Turner, Angela D. Friederici, and Stefan Koelsch, “Universal recognition of three basic emotions in
music,” Current biology 19, no. 7 (2009), 573-576.
15
similar scope. Practitioners of Byzantine chant music hold that “meaning” is certainly
not in the notated score but in its interpretation, which may be different in terms of
an emotional connotation for each listener. Scholars specializing in early music have
addressed how the visualization, the textual representation, as well as the
iconography of music in liturgical manuscripts of music notational texts, served not
only to construct knowledge about the music itself, but also to relate this knowledge
to ontological or religious beliefs, including elements of moral education, political
discourse or even in some cases, processes of social distinction 28 – though this does
not necessarily apply for all different forms of liturgical music. Nevertheless, for
practitioners of Byzantine ritual music, the affective presence of music notation can
serve to mobilize other forms of knowledge and beliefs. In medieval and Renaissance
music, the notation’s visual appeal was part of its enticing quality as an object of
devotion, and as such an integral part of theological and scholarly discourse. This
belief went as far to the point that neumes would be regarded as visualizing music
originating from a higher realm, and that they thus “served not only as a pragmatic
aide-mémoire but as a reflexive tool for disciplined knowing” of a higher truth than
the earthly practice of singing allowed.29
As the repertory is more or less set, and bound on a liturgical tradition that includes
chants as early as the sixth century A.D.30 with over one thousand great composers,31
the interviewees hold no belief that being able to read the score of a hymn one can
understand the message, or gain a superior knowledge of intention, better than a
non-literate practitioner. Rather, they believe that the cantor becomes more
immersed in the reproduction of the music itself. Therefore, for the practitioners of
Byzantine liturgical chant, perhaps the most drastic component of Byzantine
liturgical music is the fact that it “entextualizes” music notation. This concept refers
to the social processes by which people determine what consists of being a
component of a musical/liturgical text. Performers of the liturgical Byzantine chant
relate to each other not just as individuals, but as practitioners in correspondence
with the music, positioning themselves differently as agents in relation to the various
processes of social interaction that characterize the liturgical performance of the
Helen Deeming and Elizabeth Eva Leach, Manuscripts and Medieval Song (Cambridge: Cambridge
28
University Press, 2015).

29Sam Barrett, “Reflections on Music Writing: Coming to Terms with Gain and Loss in Early Music
Song,” in Vom Preis des Fortschritts: Gewinn und Verlust in der Musikgeschichte, ed. Andreas Haug and
Andreas Dorschel (New York: Universal Edition, 2008), 89–109:93.
30Sarah Gador-Whyte, Theology and poetry in early Byzantium: The Kontakia of Romanos the Melodist
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
31Maria Alexandru, “Byzantine Melodies,” GreekTV4E (21 June 2021):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cLiHOSrA9E
16
music on a style that does not encourage the use of musical instruments (see
Delibasis 1982).32 They place more weight on acquiring insider knowledge on how to
perform the liturgical chant, rather than the script itself. Look at the following
transcript from KD, cantor, literate in WSN and Byzantine neumes:
[20] KD (translated from Greek): Of course, chants may be covered by
people who can’t read notes, and, naturally, those who can read notes don’t
mean that they are all-knowing….[…]…It is of course good to combine the
oral tradition with the written tradition. However, even those who know how
to read should practice orally…[…]…and yes, though cantor-masters should
be the ones teaching, not everyone can do it. So, it’s better to study in a group,
transmitting the ethos of a musical/ecclesiastical work apart from the music
[score], regardless if one is more talented [in voice], or knowledgeable [in
notation].
This opinion was partially supported in the past even by university professors of
Byzantine music. At the end of his book Handbook of musical chanters, George
Kakoulides,33 precentor and renowned tutor of Byzantine music, writes: “Whoever
wishes to learn the Byzantine traditional art of chanting correctly may obtain and use
the cassettes numbered... Priests specifically must use the cassettes numbered...”.
There is no mention of using a notated guide, but rather, an indirect suggestion of
appropriate learning through imitation of a recording. The value is not in seeing
Byzantine notation as just a script “of” music, but also as a script “about” a very
specific musical performance style as the following interview with PN, a cantor, who
is also a violinist, suggests:
Int: What power do you think that notation holds over a liturgical chant, is
the piece [the musical work] adequately presented through its notation?
PN: In Byzantine Orthodox music? Not in the least. Byzantine semiography
[notation] is an indicator, more like a guideline or a set of instructions on how
chants are to be performed. There is a wealth of background on the modes of
Byzantine music, which require careful studying if you wish to be precise.
However, the actual experience of chanting goes far beyond “reading” the
semiography [notation]. First and foremost, it puts you in touch with your
inner self, and then, in a way, with what the text/hymn is really all about. You
can never compare it to just “reading” the music, as you would do, for
instance, with reading the lyrics of the song. If you look at it as an outsider,
32 Aristotelis Delibasis, “Chant wisely,” Why it is forbidden to worship with accompanying instruments
(Athens, 1982).
33 George Kakoulides, Handbook of musical chanters (Athens: Byzantine Musical Editions, 1989).
17
that’s what it looks like, doesn’t it? But it’s not. It’s very different. It speaks in
a different way, at least that’s what I think.
Int: In relation to what you have just said, do you think that notation, in any
form, influences a musical piece?
PN: It sets your mind in a certain way – there are Byzantine hymns
transcribed in Western semiography [notation] and I can see their value for
the study of Byzantine music for outsiders. But I think that especially now in
the age of recording, they’d be able to get a lot more of the essence of the hymn
if they would be listening to the recording, than reading the hymn in western
semiography [notation]. Don’t get me wrong. If it wasn’t for the notes
[meaning: notation] all this, or a very large part of it, would be lost, so it is a
good thing that it exists. But I think it is more of what Byzantine neumes
stand for, and it’s not just the music – that would not be accurate; it’s the
entire discipline, it’s the connection to our past, to our culture.
Int: When you perform, is there any room for improvisation?
PN: What do you mean?
Int: Can cantors improvise at all, within the bounds of the melody of the
hymn, as in, would two performances of the same chant by two different
cantors be identical?
PN: First of all, although the neumes indicate the mode and the steps you need
to take in order to sing/chant the hymn in the way it is intended, you will see
that in practice, cantors will interpret it in different ways from each other, as a
pause here, or the introduction of a small melisma there, can change a lot. It is
subtle, but, there’s plenty of room for practitioners to express themselves as
they follow the neumes. At first, you follow the head cantor, and his
cheironomy [hand gestures used in performance]. You see that one head
cantor’s style is different from another one. It’s not something that beginners
do, but the more you take part in chanting, the more you will understand what
I am talking about.
When contemporary ethnomusicologists in Greece transcribe folk songs using
Byzantine neumatic script instead of WSN, they are making a clear statement as to
the link between the two performance traditions. The value lies precisely in meaning
or achieving “something other and more” than what is represented via script.34 As
such, in this performance practice, it may be preferable to see the musicality of
Byzantine neumatic script not in its representation of musical structures, but in its
34 Jason Stanyek, “Forum on Transcription,” Twentieth-Century Music 11 (2014), 101–161:110.
18
mediation of the social and creative agency of the entire discipline and what it
represents. For practitioners, Byzantine chant notation serves as an abstraction from
a material reality, which has consequences both for musical ontology and for
conceptions of creative agency - not defining the liturgical text, but rather negotiating
the relation between text and its use in the liturgical canon – which is what it means
to think of the notation as an interface to reach “catharsis”, and improve their
psychological and spiritual wellbeing.35 An additional point emerging from the
transcripts is that, on occasion, Western terminology becomes problematic to
describe specific practices from outside cultures, as in the case of improvisation. In
Byzantine liturgical music improvisation in the Western sense is non-existent. Rather,
we can speak about variation based on an array of other parameters (voice register,
skill, even the personality of the cantors themselves). This approach may be found
also among the practitioners of the next performance style in question.
2.3 Non-Western perspectives: Japanese music of the Noh Theatre
The importance attached to the visual representation of music by its users also exists
not only in the West, but also in Japan. The focus here is on musicians who are
familiar with the Western canon and have had further training in Noh theatre music.
The score in Noh theatre is not to be taken lightly since everything is painstakingly
notated (all melodies and lyrics of the eight-member jiutai (chorus); the four hayashi-
kata (musicians); the two kōken (stage hands); even the time beats counted out loudly
by tsuzumi drummers as reference for actors’ movements on stage,36 acting as a
“sacred” text, the musical work “as it should be” in its unchallenged form.
Nevertheless, in reality, it is used only as a very brief mnemonic device, as David
Hughes’s work attests:37 For example, notation is seen as “supplementary” for
teaching the no-kan (Japanese flute in Noh theatre); the tradition is primarily oral –
no audience would ever see a Noh play where the musicians would have scores in
front of them.
35 Maria Alexandru, “The mentality of the faithful during the holy rituals, as it is expressed in
Byzantine melodic structure,” Day session in Music & Psychology, Pemptousia (2nd February 2020):
https://www.pemptousia.gr/video/i-psichologia-tou-pistou-kata-ti-th-latrian-opos-ekfrazete-is-to-
vizantinon-melos/
36Takanori Fujita, “Continuity and authenticity in traditional Japanese music,” The Garland
Encyclopedia of World Music 7 (2002), 767-772.
37David Hughes, “No nonsense: The logic and power of acoustic‐iconic mnemonic systems,” British
Journal of Ethnomusicology 9, no. 2 (2000), 93-120.
19
Before discussing notation, two related elements need to be understood: first, in

Japanese music (particularly in Noh), improvisation as a principle does not exist (two
notable exceptions being a style of folk Shamisen performance called tsugaru-jamisen
and one style of Shinto festival music in Tokyo, called matsuri-bayashi). All flexible
modes of playing encountered in performances, regardless if they are done
intentionally or not, are considered to be either variations or stylistic interpretations,
but not improvisations, as we have also pointed out above in the case of the
byzantine liturgical chant The following interview with NM, a Nohkan Master in
Kyoto, is about interpretation and its relation to the notational aspect of music:
Int: As performers, how much power do you think that notation has over the
musical piece you perform?
NM: Notation is just outline for [our] School. Notation is just scattered –
most part is transmitted orally. It is without writing, without guiding system.
Some parts you can transfer, some parts not with musical notation.
Int: When you perform, do you allow yourself any room for improvisation?
NM: It’s not a good idea for Japanese music. No improvisations. We have kind
of improvisation, this is, we call it imagination. It is very separate, to co-
ordinate time and play. But it is not improvisation.
The variety and relation of music to its notation may be further seen at the beginning
of the interview with MR, NM’s student of the Nohkan, and FJT, a professor from the
Kyoto City University of the Arts: MR reaches into his bag and pulls three flutes of
different lengths (a ryuteki, a nohkan, and a shinobue).
MR: This one is (ry)Uteki for Gagaku, this is oldest Japanese form of music. It
is used to accompany very old popular forms.
Int: Are there different notations for each flute?
MR: Yes, here [interviewee takes a selection of books from his bag and
lays them all out, such as notation for the Nohkan and for the
shinobue. Most notational systems move vertically along the page].
Int: What about his one? [the interviewer points to the Nohkan notation].
FJT: This is Noh flute. Shoga is notation, Japanese kana. Gagaku notation also
uses kana, and uses fingerings, but not Noh. [In] Noh, [the] performer
remembers fingerings. The line is beat, not box. [MR plays a tune].
FJT: [Picks shinobue]. This flute and notation is for kabuki theatre, the
number shows fingering. This number [is] used for notation, like tablature.
Those notations [points at Nohkan score and shinobue score] you can sing
by your mouth. Not this one though. The note is fingering, not note [meaning
20
that the notation is executive, not alphabetic or analogue, and it is

relevant and customized only for this specific instrument]. Box shows
two beats.
MR: In comparison [lit. combination] all are different from Western flute.
Holes in instrument are different [plays a series of ascending notes].
FJT: Part of music can be transcribed from both systems [JTN to WSN and
opposite], and it depend on system. This is tablature, so it’s easier [points to
shinobue notation. Tablatures are thought to be easier for transcription,
as they are executive notations].38 This [points at notation from Nohkn]
is notation for music of Noh. [In] This notation, each syllable do[es] not
signify definite pitches, as [I] told you, it just show[s] melodic contour, by
series of syllables, so it’s very difficult to transcribe.
Such systems which deploy syllables for the transmission of music are collectively
called kuchi-shōga (particularly for taiko and tsuzumi drums used in Noh). Masters
teach new students based on this method first: recitation of syllables without the use
of a score or a musical instrument.39 The music is first learnt syllabically, then
performed on the musical instrument, and only then perhaps the score might be
consulted. This method seems to achieve surprisingly good results in terms of
mnemonics. What’s more, some of the syllables are specific patterns that are fixed on
specific sounds. For instance, the combinations of the syllables O-hia indicate an
ascending second. The first notations of the Nohkan, the flute used in Noh
performances, were reproductions of syllables mimicking sounds. Even today,
beginners start by singing sound syllables before looking at a score, or even before
playing the musical instrument. Recently Nohkan notation started to include
fingerings or metric indications, but no pitch indicators.
Int: …would it be possible to transcribe the melody of this [interviewer plays
a piano rendition of Bach’s Air on G string] …with a Noh music score? ...
You told me that this [interviewer points at Noh flute score] describes
melodic contour. How would you describe this piece, which is based on pitch,
into melodic contour?
MR: [to FJT, in Japanese]: This is impossible [lit.: Sore wa (f)ukanōdes(u)].
FJT [jokingly, to MR, he proceeds to shout Noh syllabic notations, both
interviewee participants laugh]. With this [style of notation, it is] very,
hard, confusing, because we never imagine this kind of transcription. It is
38 Cf. Stone, Music notation.

39
Hughes, “No nonsense”.
21
unimaginable. Of course it shows contour. For instance, this [points at Noh

flute score] is strongly fixed to the Nohkan melody and combined to music
timbre. This music [pointing to the stereo speaker] is combined with
Western culture. Because of different timbre, it is very difficult for us. Maybe
it cannot be described with this system.
Int: I see. Can you play the Sakura melody [a well-known piece of Japanese
music) with another [flute] instrument [interviewer points at the
Nohkan]?
FJT: But the Noh flute is not a melodic instrument. It is used as a timbre
instrument. It [is] always solo, not ensemble with other instruments. It is
describing the atmosphere. If there is any co-ordination it is with the tempo
and the mood. If he [points at MR] is out of the mood, other players will say
“You are too fast, you are accompanying a woman and you play like it’s a
young warrior”. Co-ordination is on that level. The melodic harmony between
parts is not important. The Noh flute player is rather on timbre rather than
melody…”
MR picks the Nohkan, with which he tries to play the Sakura piece. After a few
unfruitful attempts, he stops, and both interviewee participants laugh.
Int: Does the [syllabic] notation remain the same?
FJT: Large skeleton is the same. Now [it’s] shorter, much quicker. But
structure is same. Each syllable is added with embellishment.
Int: Does this notation preserve the same music as it was when the piece was
first written?
FJT [frowning, serious]: We believe yes. We believe this notation shows
music from seventeenth century, but there is no evidence. Each school has own
notation, so from starting point, there must exist similarities [lit. similar]. If
you trace back four hundred years ago, you see in actual performance we don’t
know, there are some changes in history… […].
On the aspect of continuity and authenticity in the performance of Japanese Noh
music, the reader can consult the aforementioned lemma by Fujita.40
We see how performers of different practices deal with the written aspect of music:
musicians, through the oral transmission system, are trained to see music without a
notational perspective. In similarity to the Western Canon, Caio Pagano, Brazil’s
40
Fujita, “Continuity and authenticity”.
22
leading classical pianist and Regent's Professor at Arizona State University said
during a master-class session for young pianists in 2011:
“We encounter most people trying to read literally what the score says. And the
score says a lot of things, but we’re looking for that thing which is beyond the
notes and the bars and the sforzandi, and crescendo here, diminuendo there, which
is a, a safe haven for teachers. Most teachers, rely on a literal reading, very
accurate, exact reading, of what’s written. But then, you hear this music played
this way and it’s dead. It doesn’t express anything, just very literal reading of the
score. And as Mahler used to say: “I printed the score as everything you need to
know about the music except the essential”.
3. Discussion
The common ground between these three vastly different performance cultures with
very different notational systems is the entextualization of the score. Schuiling
describes entextualisation as
“the process of demarcating abstract objects such as stories, myths, songs and
saying in the flow of spoken language, and in doing so it reconfigures
interpersonal relations and allows speakers to speak in names other than their
own (such as deities or forefathers) and to address their listeners not just as
individuals but as members of a particular community.”41
This description, according to Schuiling, is loosely based on Barber’s work on the
ethnography of entextualisation, who states that textual traditions can be seen as a
community’s ethnography of itself.42 From the material collected through the
interviews presented, two viewpoints emerge: The first one is that the musical text
carries the minimal necessary information for a musical performance; it is to be seen
as directions given by the composer to the performer for music to be created. Under
this light, notation as a force to mobilize, calls attention to the indexical, material-
semiotic networks in which notation is embedded. This has put more focus on the
musician: they take the information given by the composer and give their own
interpretation of it to the audience. This perspective is now prevailing among
41 Schuiling, “Notation Cultures,” 443.

42Karin Barber, The Anthropology of Texts, Persons and Publics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2007).
23
younger musicians. The second viewpoint is, where tradition demands it, performers
of Western European art music “should” follow a close interpretation of the score,
alluding to the nineteenth-century German romantic view of following the directives
to create the “perfect score” mentioned earlier in this article. At the same time,
Byzantine and Noh music performers rely first and foremost on the personal tuition
of a cantor/Master, as scores have a different purpose in those musical traditions.
The comment is particularly interesting because it suggests that the process of
entextualization, determining what is considered to be part of the music and what is
not, may differ not only across different notation styles but even within the same
style and from one practitioner to another, in accord with the cultural context of the
music they perform and the role of the score in this context. In the Western world,
two examples would be jazz standards, where performers are very much within their
element when improvising upon a given melody; a second example would be pre-
nineteenth-century classical music performances, in which the musical elements not
present within the score were not be perceived as a weakness, but as an opportunity
for performers to demonstrate their individual skills in improvisation. It remains
unjustified as to how practitioners of music from the long nineteenth century
developed this idea in the first place, as Baroque musicians were not tied to the
notation; for example, Arcangelo Corelli’s original scores which excluded precise
ornamentations were not an exception, but rather the rule of a product created by
musical editors, and not performers; Corelli’s original notation of the first two bars
from his first Sonata in D major for Violin and Cembalo in 1700, op 5 (Rome: Gasparo
Pietra Santa) vary significantly from a modern rendition of the same sonata by
Werner Icking (Siegburg: Werner Icking, 1995). In contemporary music education
and performance practice, though originality and variation are still much admired,
performers follow specific templates which dictate how much originality and
variation is permitted within the boundaries of their musical traditions – both in the
case of Western and of non-Western music, abiding by social conformities within
these traditions. It falls outside the scope of this paper to search for the highly-
esteemed performers, academics, and music critics who determine how each style
should sound, as well as post-1940s graphic scores in Western art music which not
only permitted such liberties but encouraged them. However, if this thought
prevailed amongst performers once, it is gradually losing its prominence: amateurs
and professionals alike have begun to see the score as a tool, and (somehow) open to
individual interpretation.
It is also important to clarify again that written music has different value to each of
the traditions that the musicians belonged to in the groups presented here. Pace sees
scores as “the means for channeling performers’ creative imagination in otherwise
24
unavailable directions, rather than as an obstacle”.43 The imaginative effects of

notation are central to the formation of notation cultures.
In Western art music, a lot of the musical information is set in writing within the
score: it is “externalized” – in the sense that directives are not given just for
pitch/duration/tempo/attack rate/volume control, but also for expression: dolce, molto
doloroso, expressivo, among others. The issue of performing without a score and
externalizing these expressions in front of a live audience acquires particular
importance when the status of live performance in a culture dominated by mass
media is taken into consideration.44 In the liturgical music rite of the Byzantine
church, the externalization of the musical work lies within its ability to evoke the
divine, and not by following the music score of chants in a dogmatic manner. In his
article “Psalmody and Freedom in the Orthodox Ritual Tradition,” Karagounis45
highlights the freedoms in performance of liturgical chants within the Christian
Orthodox rite, as whenever gaps between the Oral and Written tradition in the
Orthodox Chant appeared, they were taken advantage of – and in some cases, this
could be the outcome of ignorance on the part of orthodox cantors in the past.46
Karagounis mentions that cantors were free to choose the scale and mode of the
hymn, could partially alter the melody (by following specific rules – but avoiding
melodies from secular culture), had partial freedom as to the vocal arrangement and
introduction of voices, freedom as to setting the tempo and rhythmic structure,
freedom in how the hymns were to be notated, an encouragement to create local
hymnal schools which create and follow their own versions of cantillation, and
complete freedom over the embellishment and addition of melisma within the
chants. Even the complete absence of melisma was a symbol of performance
expression. Though from the outside this may appear to provide a lot of flexibility as
to how cantors may have approached the score, there were, in fact, rules in effect,
and Karagounis is quick to point out that these rules are set by “the oral tuition of
old, well-esteemed masters, and by the existing scores themselves”. The cantors may
place their own stamp into the work provided that they improvise within specific
forms and locations within the score (positions and types of melisma), otherwise,
43 Ian Pace, “The New State of Play in Performance Studies,” Music and Letters 98 (2017), 281–292:285.
44 Philip Auslander, Liveness: Performance in a mediatized culture (Routledge, 2008).
45Konstantinos Karagounis, “Psalmody and freedom in the Orthodox ritual tradition. Consequences
from the establishment of the New Method of Prescriptive Semiography,” in Two Study Days for the
Jubilee of Memory and Honor of the Three Great Teachers and Benefactors of the Nation: Chrysanthos of
Madyta, Gregorios the First Chanter and Chourmouzios the Archivarian, Athens, 4-5 October 2014, p. 12-17:
https://tomeaspsaltikis.gr/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/2014.10.04.pdf
46Alexander Konrad Khalil, "Echoes of Constantinople: oral and written tradition of the psaltes of the
Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople," PhD diss. (California: UC San Diego, 2009), 68-70.
25
their improvisations are seen as “cancers on the body of the pure Byzantine rite”.47
The pinnacle in the freedom of expression comes in the form of the statement that the
“ultimate freedom in performing Byzantine liturgical chants, is the choice of not to
perform” [italics ours]. This statement deserves a qualifier: The Church does not
oblige (=does not consider it a sin) its members to participate in hymnal oration, even
if they have “no excuse” as to not take part, i.e., they are true believers and devout
members of their parish, they have been tutored in Byzantine hymnography, know
the liturgical canon, and even the hymn itself. The freedom of choice to take part in
oration is left to the individual, with no repercussions whatsoever if they chose to
remain silent.48
In the Japanese Noh theatre, music is considered to be a living performance tradition
and not a theoretical practice. The tuition of traditional music in Japan takes place in
a process that has a very particular and defining role in the performer’s future. It
defines them as performers and people, as varying music schools have different
performer philosophies behind them. Scores are by no means uniform even for
similar instruments belonging to the same performance discipline, but are highly
specific to individual schools and very difficult to be deciphered, without the
assistance of a Master; each school would develop its own variations of a system,
highlighting the fact that focus is placed on the Oral tradition between Masters and
their apprentices, while the score comes into play much later and more as a concept
than an actual tool. Specifically, in the case of Noh music, the teaching methodology
was such that the score was presented to the student long after he had mastered the
repertory, and was deemed worthy of seeing the “original”, as it had been put down
decades or centuries ago.49
The variation and nonuniformity in the scores make contemporary attempts to
decipher and preserve past Noh works very difficult, as the latter may date as far
back as the seventeenth century and their meaning is now unclear. Nevertheless, this
variation is seen as an integral part of the discipline.50
In all three disciplines, the externalized score can, in a way be communicated more
effectively, if performers are true to the performance style that the notation has been
crafted to serve, and not by mere adherence to the musical information set on the
page. It could be argued that by merely using notation or written accounts of
performances, a performance style that we have no recordings of cannot be
47 Karagounis, “Psalmody and freedom,” 18.

48 Dimitrios Tsamis, Dimitrios, Psalmody and reverence (Thessaloniki: Melissa, 1990).
49 Hughes, “No nonsense”.
50 Takanori Fujita, “The Community of Classical Japanese Music Transmission: The Preservation
Imperative and the Production of Change in Nō,” transl. Edgar W. Pope, Ethnomusicology Translations
9 (2019), 1-41.
26
recreated. Leech-Wilkinson rightly questions whether staying “true” to any

performance practice before the age of recording technology in the late nineteenth
century could have any practical application.51 However, as it has been shown,
musicians do not always favour externalized scores in Western and non-Western
settings alike. During the transference from one individual (the performer) to many
(the audience), it comes to oppose the complex and personalized mode of
performance due to its strict character: for instance, in a piano concerto, where
everyone may have a score in front of them apart from the soloist performer. Without
losing focus of the radical differences in the development and style of tuition
between Western art music and Noh theatre, this fact could be compared and
contrasted with the Noh theatre, where the performers do not usually have a score in
front of them). Soloists, in both Western and non-Western settings, perform as if the
music is coming as natural from within them, without the visual aid of a score,
meaning that they are demonstrating to the audience that the music coming from
them is internalized: they create it intuitively all from within themselves.
There is a fundamental difference between these two approaches: though an
externalized piece of music based on a “strict” performance may have high
“validity” as to the supposed intentions of the composer, it lacks the internal thought
and spirit of the performer. Thus, the performers, once they have acquired the
language (as in the basic musical information regarding the basic principles from the
score such as pitch/duration/tempo/attack rate), articulate the music “in their own
words”, over-imposing their own emotions as their interpretation. This would mean
a re-interpretation of the score, something that most soloists/performers would
define as “owning the piece” (See for example Benjamin Grosvenor, winner of the
piano section of the BBC Young Musician of the Year 2004 competition, during an
interview with Alan Yentob).52 There is no perfect visual reproduction of sound; it is
simply unattainable, as not only different cultures, but also different performance
practices, and even different individuals, may see different elements of music as
being important and in need of being safeguarded in ever-changing methods of
notation, and then represented in written form for usage by others.
Surmising from these interviews spanning performers from three different traditions,
though having a common denominator, it would be justifiable to suggest that first, a
performer’s own interpretation comes primarily from within them, and not within
the score, the latter being a subject of variable value, based on the manner which is
used in its respective musical tradition, and second, the relationship between
performers and written music should be examined not as a global, undifferentiated
phenomenon, but a dynamic process which is shaped within specific cultural and
51Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, The Changing Sound of Music: Approaches to Studying Recorded Musical
Performances (London: CHARM, 2009), 247.
In Imogen Pollard, “Imagine Being a Concert Pianist,” BBC1, directed by Rupert Edwards (London:
52
BBC, 2005), 42:10-43:20, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074swk (29/08/2023).
27
social contexts. If we adopt this viewpoint, it becomes apparent that notations are
bound to the performance cultures that produced them– they are Sonic Cultural
Representations, highlighting the “dynamic relationship” between sound and its
representation within specific cultural settings. Therefore, we see that notation works
as a “sign”; it performs an abstraction of sonic reality, which has consequences both
for musical ontology and for conceptions of creative agency.
4. Conclusion
Performers yearn for the chance to discover and show audiences how a different
interpretation of the scores could communicate different meanings, the point being to
understand more fully how novel, disregarded strands of new performance
perspectives work in structuring a novel performer consciousness. Musical cultures
are not simply cultures of sounds and their visual representations, but rather they are
cultures of the relationship between sound and representation. Ideally, the audience,
including critics and academics, can allow some leeway and not be over-confident as
to “meanings” inside musical scores: meanings change, based on what society wants
to understand and is very much susceptible to perspective (e.g., Beethoven’s ninth
symphony is understood rather differently by Adorno in comparison to McClary,53 at
least in the case of Western art music. In the opposite direction, practitioners of other
music traditions which do make (partial) use of musical scores, adopt a much more
careful and conservative approach when it comes to re-definition, modification, and
new methods of interpretation. Those who engage with Sonic Cultural
Representations of music need to take into consideration the broader cultural setting
of performance practice, before leading audiences to new perspectives when they
come to witness performances taking place in the 21st century, and in the process,
become part of this new reality. To conclude, we see music notation functioning as a
representation of the music it has been created to serve because it renders compatible
musicians, instruments, playing techniques, acoustic measurements, and music
theories from the speculative to the empirical. We fully stand by Schuiling’s quote
that “Scores work not because of their representation of sounding music, but because
53 Theodor W. Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann, Beethoven Philosophie der Musik: Fragmente und Texte
(Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1993). Susan McClary, Feminine endings: Music, gender, and
sexuality (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991).
28
they construct relations that allow music to sound”.54 We hope that we have proved
this comment to ring true across disciplines and notation cultures.
References
Adorno, Theodor W., and Rolf Tiedemann. Beethoven Philosophie der Musik: Fragmente
und Texte. Frankfurt am Main : Suhrkamp, 1993
Alexandru, Maria. “Byzantine Melodies.” Department of Music Studies, A.U.Th.
Byzantine Music 1st part. [Αλεξάνδρου, Μαρία. Βυζαντινά Μελωδήματα
Τμήμ. Μουσ. Σπουδών Α.Π.Θ. (Βυζαντινή μουσική) α΄ μέρος]. GreekTV4E.
June 21 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cLiHOSrA9E
______. “The mentality of the faithful during the holy rituals, as it is expressed in
Byzantine melodic structure.” Day session in Music & Psychology. Pemptousia.
[“Η ψυχολογία του πιστού στη θεία λατρεία, όπως εκφράζεται εις το
βυζαντινόν μέλος”, Εισήγηση Ημερίδας: “Μουσική & Ψυχολογία”.
Πεμπτουσία]. February 2 2020: https://www.pemptousia.gr/video/i-
psichologia-tou-pistou-kata-ti-th-latrian-opos-ekfrazete-is-to-vizantinon-
melos/.
Auslander, Philip. Liveness: Performance in a mediatized culture. Routledge, 2008. DOI:
10.4324/9780203938133-8
Bailey, Peter. “Conspiracies of meaning: music-hall and the knowingness of popular
culture.” Past & Present 144, no. 1 (1994), 138-170. DOI: 10.1093/past/144.1.138
Barber, Karin. The Anthropology of Texts, Persons and Publics. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2007. DOI: 10.1017/s0001972012000393
Barrett, Sam. 2008. “Reflections on Music Writing: Coming to Terms with Gain and
Loss in Early Music Song.” Vom Preis des Fortschritts: Gewinn und Verlust in der
Musikgeschichte, ed. Andreas Haug and Andreas Dorschel, 89-109. New York:
Universal Edition, 2008.
Boorman, Stanley. “The musical text.” In Rethinking music, edited by Nicholas Cook
and Mark Everist. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999/2001, 403-423. DOI:
10.7202/1014492ar
Bowen, José A. “Finding the music in musicology: Performance history and musical
works.” In Rethinking music. Edited by Nicholas Cook and Mark Everist, 424-
54 Schuiling, “Notation Cultures,” 435.
29
451. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Blumer, H. Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. University of California
Press: Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 1969.
Cook, Nicholas. “Between process and product: Music and/as performance.” Music
Theory Online 7, no. 2 (2001), 1-31.
______. Music, performance, meaning: selected essays. Routledge, 2017. DOI:
10.4324/9781315090757
Deeming, Helen, and Elizabeth Eva Leach. Manuscripts and Medieval Song.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. DOI:
10.1017/CBO9781107477193
Delibasis, Aristotelis (Δελήμπασης, Αριστοτέλης). “Chant wisely.” Why it is forbidden
to worship with accompanying instruments [“Ψάλατε Συνετώς.” Διατί δεν
επιτρέπεται η ενόργανος λατρεία. Athens, 1982.
DeNora, Tia. After Adorno: rethinking music sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2003.
Dreyfus, Laurence. “Beyond the Interpretation of Music.” Dutch Journal of Music
Theory, 12 (2007), 253–72. DOI: 10.1080/01411896.2020.1775087
Fritz, Thomas, Sebastian Jentschke, Nathalie Gosselin, Daniela Sammler, Isabelle
Peretz, Robert Turner, Angela D. Friederici, and Stefan Koelsch. “Universal
recognition of three basic emotions in music.” Current biology 19, no. 7 (2009),
573-576. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2009.02.058
Fujita, Takanori. “Continuity and authenticity in traditional Japanese music.” The
Garland Encyclopedia of World Music 7 (2002), 767-772.
______. “No and Kyogen: Music from the Medieval Theatre.” In The Ashgate Research
Companion to Japanese Music. Edited by Alison McQeen Tokita, and David W.
Hughes. Routledge, 2008.
______. The Community of Classical Japanese Music Transmission: The Preservation
Imperative and the Production of Change in Nō. Translated by Edgar W.
Pope. Ethnomusicology Translations 9 (2019), 1-41.
Gador-Whyte, Sarah. Theology and poetry in early Byzantium: The Kontakia of Romanos
the Melodist. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Goehr, Lydia. The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works: An Essay in the Philosophy of
Music: An Essay in the Philosophy of Music. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992.
Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Goethe's Werke: vollständige Ausgabe letzter Hand. Vol.
25. Stuttgart und Tübingen: JG Cotta, 1828.
30
Hughes, David. “No nonsense: The logic and power of acoustic‐iconic mnemonic
systems.” British Journal of Ethnomusicology 9, no. 2 (2000), 93-120. DOI:
10.1080/09681220008567302
Kakoulides, Georgios (Κακουλίδης, Γεώργιος). Handbook of Musical Chanters
[Μουσικό Εγκόλπιο του Ιεροψάλτου]. Athens: Byzantine Musical
Publications, (1989) 1994.
Karagounis, Konstantinos (Καραγούνης, Κωνσταντίνος). “Psalmody and freedom
in the Orthodox ritual tradition. Consequences from the establishment of the
New Method of Prescriptive Semiography” [«Ψαλμωδία και ελευθερία στην
ορθόδοξη λατρευτική παράδοση. Συνέπειες από την καθιέρωση της Νέας
Μεθόδου Αναλυτικής Σημειογραφίας»]. Ιn Two Study Days for the Jubilee of
Memory and Honor of the Three Great Teachers and Benefactors of the Nation:
Chrysanthos of Madyta, Gregorios the First Chanter and Chourmouzios the
Archivarian [Διημερίδα Ἐπετειακῶν Ἐκδηλώσεων “Μνήμης καὶ τιμῆς”, τῶν
τριῶν μεγάλων διδασκάλων καὶ εὐεργετῶν τοῦ Ἔθνους: Χρυσάνθου ἐκ
Μαδύτων, Γρηγορίου Πρωτοψάλτου και Χουρμουζίου Χαρτοφύλακα] Athens,
4-5 October 2014, p. 12-17: https://tomeaspsaltikis.gr/wp-
content/uploads/2018/02/2014.10.04.pdf
Kaufmann, Walter. Musical notations of the orient: Notational systems of continental, east,
south and central Asia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1967.
Kelly, Elaine. “Evolution versus Authenticity: Johannes Brahms, Robert Franz, and
Continuo Practice in the Late Nineteenth Century.” 19th-Century Music 30, no.
2 (2006), 182-204. DOI: 10.1525/ncm.2006.30.2.182
Kelly, Thomas Forrest. Capturing Music: The Story of Notation. New York: WW Norton
& Company, 2014.
Kivy, Peter. Authenticities: Philosophical reflections on musical performance. Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 1998. DOI: 10.7591/9781501731631
Khalil, Alexander Konrad. "Echoes of Constantinople: oral and written tradition of
the psaltes of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople." PhD diss.
California: UC San Diego, 2009.
Laukka, Petri, Tuomas Eerola, Nutankumar S. Thingujam, Teruo Yamasaki, and
Grégory Beller. “Universal and culture-specific factors in the recognition and
performance of musical affect expressions.” Emotion 13, no. 3 (2013), 434. DOI:
10.1037/a0031388
Leech-Wilkinson, Daniel. “Early recorded violin playing: evidence for what?”
Spielpraxis der Saiteninstrumente in der Romantik: Bericht des Symposiums in Bern,
18.–19. November 2006. Edited by Claudio Bacciagaluppi, Roman Brotbeck, and
31
Anselm Gerhard, 9-22. Musikforschung der Hochschule der Künste Bern, vol.
3. Schliengen: Argus, 2011.
______. The Changing Sound of Music: Approaches to Studying Recorded Musical
Performances. London: CHARM, 2009.
______. “Compositions, scores, performances, meanings.” Music Theory Online 18
(2012).
Markus, Hazel and Shinobu Kitayama. “Culture and the self: Implications for
cognition, emotion, and motivation.” Psychological review 98, no. 2 (1991), 224.
DOI: 10.1037/0033-295X.98.2.224
McClary, Susan. Feminine endings: Music, gender, and sexuality. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1991.
Nettl, Bruno. The Western impact on world music: Change, adaptation, and survival. New
York: Schirmer Books, 1985.
______. “World music in the twentieth century: a survey of research on western
influence.” Acta Musicologica 58, no. Fasc. 2 (1986), 360-373. DOI:
10.2307/932821
Ogawa, Masafumi. 2010. “Japan: Music as a tool for moral education?” In The origins
and foundations of music education. Eds. Gordon Cox and Robin Stevens, 205-
220. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.
Pace, Ian. “The New State of Play in Performance Studies.” Music and Letters 98
(2017), 281–92. DOI: 10.1093/ml/gcx063
Pollard, Imogen (ed.). “Imagine Being a Concert Pianist.” BBC1. Directed by Rupert
Edwards. London: BBC, 2005. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074swk
(29/08/2023).
Rankin, Susan. “Capturing Sound: The Notation of Language.” In Cantus scriptus:
Technologies of Medieval Song Eds. Emma Dillon and Lynn Ransom, 10-41.
Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2012. DOI: 10.31826/9781463228774-003
______. “On the Treatment of Pitch in Early Music Writing.” Early Music History 30
(2011), 105–175. DOI: 10.1017/S0261127911000039
Ridley, Aaron. The philosophy of music: Theme and variations. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 2004.
Schenker, Heinrich. The Masterwork in Music: A Yearbook, vol. 1. Ed. W. Drabkin.
Trans. I. Bent et al. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, (1925) 1994.
32
Schuiling, Floris. “Notation Cultures: Towards an Ethnomusicology of Notation.”

Journal of the Royal Musical Association 144.2 (2019), 429-458. DOI:
10.1080/02690403.2019.1651508
Seeger, Charles. “Prescriptive and Descriptive Music-Writing.” The Musical Quarterly
44.2 (1958), 184-195.
Simos, Ioannis (Σίμος, Ιωάννης). Musical Education in contemporary and modern Greece
[Η Μουσική Εκπαίδευση στη νεώτερη και σύγχρονη Ελλάδα]. Athens,
Orpheus, 2004.
Small, Christopher. Musicking: The meanings of performing and listening. Hannover and
London: Wesleyan University Press, 1998.
Stanyek, Jason. “Forum on Transcription.” Twentieth-Century Music 11 (2014), 101–61.
DOI: 10.1017/S1478572214000024
Stone, Kurt. 1980. Music notation in the twentieth century: a practical guidebook. New
York and London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1980.
Tsamis, Dimitrios (Τσάμης, Δημήτριος). Psalmody and reverence [Ψαλμωδία και
κατάνυξη]. Thessaloniki: Melissa, 1990.
Biographies:
George Athanasopoulos (PhD, University of Edinburgh 2013) is a researcher in
cognitive ethnomusicology, focusing on the cross-cultural perception of music. He
has conducted fieldwork research in Great Britain, Greece, Japan, northwest Pakistan
and Papua New Guinea. His work has been funded by the Marie Curie
Foundation/COFUND, the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, the University of
Edinburgh, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (State Scholarships Foundation)
and the Alexander S Onassis Foundation. His research has been published in PLOS
ONE, the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Psychology of Music,
Musicae Scientiae, and Empirical Musicology Review.
George Kitsios Graduate of the Department of Music Studies of the University of

Athens where he also presented his PhD thesis (Supervisor: Pavlos Kavouras).
During his studies, he was awarded the SYLFF scholarship (Sasakawa Young
Leaders Fellowship Fund). He worked in several research projects mainly focused on
Greek traditional music. He also studied music theory and violin. For many years he
served as an extra member of the Greek National Opera’s Orchestra. He also served
as a teacher of music in high and primary schools. He has participated in several
Greek and international discography releases, as well as in recordings for theatre and
cinema productions. He is a lecturer of Ethnomusicology at the School of Music
Studies, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
33

2023 Athanasopoulos Kitsios 8389 25836 1 PB

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

2023 Athanasopoulos Kitsios 8389 25836 1 PB

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

IMS-RASMB, Series Musicologica Balcanica 4, 2023.

Performance and the Score: Cross-Cultural Perspectives

Performance and the Score: an Ethnomusicological

George Athanasopoulos and George Kitsios

Keywords: Performance, performance studies, music notation, music score, cross-cultural,

appear in the score as a result of the establishment of a serious composer-publisher

revisions can be added as a reflection on the historical studies in music notation,

2. Three perspectives on notation: Western classical music, Byzantine Music, and

The principal method of the collection of qualitative material was semi-structured

2.1. Western Perspectives: United Kingdom

completely veer off it, or you’d be like, you know…re-contextualizing the

21Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, “Compositions, scores, performances, meanings,” Music Theory Online 18

In another excerpt, T.F, performer (violinist), sees music performance as a narrative

2.2 The geographical “in-betweener”: Byzantine liturgical music

The display of music in notation may not simply be a documentation of something

University Press, 2015).

34 Jason Stanyek, “Forum on Transcription,” Twentieth-Century Music 11 (2014), 101–161:110.

2.3 Non-Western perspectives: Japanese music of the Noh Theatre

Before discussing notation, two related elements need to be understood: first, in

that the notation is executive, not alphabetic or analogue, and it is

38 Cf. Stone, Music notation.

unimaginable. Of course it shows contour. For instance, this [points at Noh

41 Schuiling, “Notation Cultures,” 443.

unavailable directions, rather than as an obstacle”.43 The imaginative effects of

47 Karagounis, “Psalmody and freedom,” 18.

recreated. Leech-Wilkinson rightly questions whether staying “true” to any

BBC, 2005), 42:10-43:20, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074swk (29/08/2023).

54 Schuiling, “Notation Cultures,” 435.

451. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Schuiling, Floris. “Notation Cultures: Towards an Ethnomusicology of Notation.”

George Kitsios Graduate of the Department of Music Studies of the University of

You might also like