Text scores and graphic scores as medium to foster interdisciplinary and intercultural dialogue in contemporary music

The focus of my doctoral research is on verbal and graphic scores and the role that they can play to develop the individual artistic voice of the performer, and simultaneously also as medium to foster interdisciplinary and intercultural dialogue in contemporary music. The aim of this research then is to investigate how non-conventional notation, that includes symbols, words and open forms that allows free associations can:

1) Encourage the shift from performer to performer-improviser.
2) Become an occasion for the performer to enter in contact with their own embodied musical knowledge and expand their creative agency.
3) Be a frame for inclusive co-creation and interdisciplinary and intercultural collaborations.

More broadly, this research wants to identify which kind of music notation can serve as a conduit for different narratives and artistic languages to interact and merge; exploring how symbols and words can carry tradition and simultaneously serve as mediums to find new possibilities.

Each of my artistic component will explore the role of selected verbal and graphic scores within intercultural and interdisciplinary collaborations done with different artists and communities.

Keywords

verbal notation, graphic notation, free improvisation, experimental music, interdisciplinarity, community engagement, multiculturalism

Livia Schweizer is a doctoral student in the Arts study programme at the MuTri Doctoral School.