musical notes

informal musings on methods of notated communication in contemporary classical music

  • william sweeney

    A short introduction to the notational approaches of Scottish composer William Sweeney.

  • the creative gap

    The process that occurs between musical notation and its sonic realisation is often negatively described as an inexplicable ‘gap’. However, I argue that this ‘gap’ affords creativity in notated music.

  • the prepared piano

    Regarding the prepared piano’s changeable nature and bearing in mind ideas of distributed creativity, we ponder the question: what actually is a musical instrument?

  • notation is prescriptive and descriptive

    Parallels with linguistic theory are explored in this short discussion evaluating the usefulness of terms ‘prescriptive’ and ‘descriptive’ when regarding music notation.

  • notation is graphic

    Understanding that all notation is graphic forces us to find new ways to describe notation — ones that work outside the notational hierarchies still evident in musical discourse today.