Graphic Scores – Starting With Art

Although I usually use graphic scores as part of a composing activity, and the art that is produced is generally just a means of notating the music, I have also frequently used a visual art technique/concept as the inspiration, with the resulting art works being then interpreted through music, and becoming a Graphic Score as a subsidiary role.

Here are some examples of this Art-to-Music use of graphic scores:My beautiful picture

Primary and Secondary Colours  

  • Art using only the three primary colours was created. The students were given PVA glue yellow wool, blue glitter and red card to create collages art works on black card.
  • The art was then interpreted in music by the artists using only three “primary timbres” on their own with no mixing.
  • Next, a new piece of art was created exploring the mixing of these primary colours into secondary colours.
  • Again this was interpreted in music and resulted in much thought and discussion about how to combine different musical ideas together, and an increased understanding of timbre and variety of texture in music.

Trill Art

  • The symbol for a musical trill (a horizontal wavy line) was used to create collages with card and foil on a black background.
  • Other ways of making long lines more interesting were discussed (becoming thicker and thinner, changing colour along the line, adding new lines which cross over each other etc)
  • Students were encouraged to experiment with texture and 3D aspects in their trill collages.
  • Then each picture was used by its artists to inspire music containing trillsgraphic scores 006.
  • The textural variations and long-line creativity of the art works were discussed in musical terms (for instance the line becoming thicker and thinner could result in changes in volume) and then these musical equivalents were added to the composition.
  • A variation of this activity is published in my primary school teaching resource “Ears Wide Open – Taringa Areare” published by SOUNZ  http://sounz.org.nz/resources/show/289  in Section 15 which is about Lyell Cresswell’s Sextet for brass instruments. Trills play a distinctive and integral part in the 3rd movement of this work, and in this version of the activity, the art is primarily intended as a response to listening to the music.

graphic scores 015Minimalism and “not quite repeating” patterns

  • Repeating patterns with slight variations in art (Mondrian, Escher) were studied and described.
  • This process was then mimicked by the class, again in collages.
  • My beautiful pictureThe same process then followed in music to create minimalist music, where short musical patterns are repeated with slight alterations.
  • This activity was used as an introduction to a study of music with repeating patterns such as that of Minimalist composers  like Steve Reich, Philip Glass etc, popular music (It only Takes Two To Tango by The Stranglers is a good example!), Javanese Gamelan music, “Mars” from Holst’s Planet Suite etc
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