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Philosophy of Music Notation

Posted: 07 Feb 2021, 18:31
by AlanPerrin
I am looking to collate the various academic books, papers, essays, and presentations concerning music notation.
Please post any you can think of:

I will go first...

Book
Contemporary music notation: semiotic and aesthetic aspects by Andrea Valle 2018,

Paper
The Notation of Time, James Ingram 1985,

Re: Philosophy of Music Notation

Posted: 08 Feb 2021, 08:59
by OCTO
A very nice idea!
It would be more than helpful to add the ISBN / ISMN for each book, than it is easier to find.

The book from Andrea Valle I haven't seen before, and would definitely love to explore, thank you for that.

Just what it comes first to my mind is an extravagant book I have, perhaps not directly philosophy, but very close as it handles the notation as painting or visual art creation:

* Notations 21 by Theresa Sauer; ISBN-13: 978-0979554643; Publisher: Mark Batty Publisher (April 30, 2009).

Re: Philosophy of Music Notation

Posted: 08 Feb 2021, 09:04
by OCTO
Another is an academic research by Matthias Sköld (otherwise a member here too):
Sköld, M. (2019). The visual representation of spatialisation for composition and analysis. [Nordic Sound and Music Computing Conference 2019 (pp. 70-77).]
http://www.mattiasskold.com/research/

Re: Philosophy of Music Notation

Posted: 10 Feb 2021, 18:46
by benwiggy
AlanPerrin wrote: 07 Feb 2021, 18:31 I am looking to collate the various academic books, papers, essays, and presentations concerning music notation.
Please post any you can think of:
All of them? There has been 'quite a lot'. Most texts on the subject of music will describe or discuss notation at some point:

Gaffurius, Practica Musicae, 1496
Thomas Morley, A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practical Music, 1597
Adriano Banchieri, Cartella musicale, 1614
...
Gardner Read, Music Notation
Richard Rastall, The Notation of Western Music
...
Elaine Gould, Behind Bars

Is this for a particular purpose?

Re: Philosophy of Music Notation

Posted: 10 Feb 2021, 21:44
by OCTO
I think Alan means more "philosophy" rather than "techniques" of music notation. But I believe that the term "philosophy" could include as well aesthetic, psychology, visual perception etc. (etc= rhetoric, dogma, math, geometry, what else...?)

Re: Philosophy of Music Notation

Posted: 22 Feb 2021, 20:09
by Fred G. Unn
I guess I'm not entirely sure what Alan is asking for with "philosophy" but the Pierre Boulez lecture on "Notation, Transcription, Invention" (1991-2) published in English as a chapter in the book Music Lessons (2019) probably fits the bill. (ISBN-13 : 978-0226672595)

Some of these address the philosophy issue too:
Image

Image

OCTO, I've had an eBay alert for Notations 21 for years, but it's always way out of budget whenever it pops up!

Re: Philosophy of Music Notation

Posted: 23 Feb 2021, 08:32
by OCTO
Fred G. Unn wrote: 22 Feb 2021, 20:09 OCTO, I've had an eBay alert for Notations 21 for years, but it's always way out of budget whenever it pops up!
Yes, it was really a limited run, and quickly it was sold out. I was lucky and bought I think for 80USD, new.

Thanks for the pictures, good to explore.
Sorry, what is next to Karkoschka? Charles...?

Re: Philosophy of Music Notation

Posted: 23 Feb 2021, 12:49
by Fred G. Unn
OCTO wrote: 23 Feb 2021, 08:32 Sorry, what is next to Karkoschka? Charles...?
Sorry for the bad pic. That's "Extended Notation" by Christian Dimpker (2013) ISBN-13 : 978-3643903020

Re: Philosophy of Music Notation

Posted: 09 Mar 2021, 16:02
by AlanPerrin
Hi everyone, thank you for all your contributions.
I apologise if I wasn't clear enough in my first post, but as @octo has explained I meant books and texts which deal more with the philosophical discussion of notation rather than techniques. Texts which explore the philosophers' view of notation rather than a copy editor.