Conference Agenda

Organized by the AMS Musical Notation, Inscription, Visualization Study Group.

One of the conventional expectations of modern music notation is that it be a set of instructions to facilitate music making. Even as this demand raises familiar issues including the status of musical works (Goodman, 1968) and their legal ownership (Arewa, 2014), as well as ambivalence or even antagonism towards reproducibility (Reed, 2021), the instructional aspect of notation remains a foundational element of music pedagogy and practice. Yet, there are many notational practices throughout history and across geographies that seem to deliberately provide too little information, too much information, or even to defy replication.

This year’s Notation, Inscription, and Visualization study group session is dedicated to the topic of “bad instructions” for music from any time period, genre, style or region. From notations with color fields or cryptic symbology, to those scored beyond an instrument’s capacity, to anarchic, excessive, or otherwise illegible notation, these items are not only notable for their singularity, but for their potential to tell us about the role of notation and its relationship to authorship, perpetuity, and practice. In this session, Michael Gallope (University of Minnesota) will moderate a series of informal roundtable talks each showcasing a single example of music notation, inscription, or visualization to create an exhibition, in real time, of “bad” notations that sparks dialogue across periods and cultures. The study group's annual business meeting will immediately follow the session.