Monday, January 26, 2015

COMICS AS MUSICAL NOTATION?

(... or musical notation as comics?)

Title: “Chomsky Vs. Foucault”
Medium: Graphic score, 8.5” by 11” ink on paper. 2007.
Composer: Daniel Schnee
Nationality: Canadian



Notes:

This work is a graphic score: a musical composition utilizing non-standard notation: an original combination text, symbols, and numbers. The score represents four distinct territories or systems, each of which can be played or excluded at will. The performer is to read each territory as a set of possible directions inspiring free improvisation in the moment of emotional response, like a sort of musical Rorschach test. One can also assign dynamic or musical values to each segment of each territory and thus read it more like a traditional score, e.g. the name of the composer Tallis equals the note G. One could also interpret the names listed in the lower left hand corner as indications of what kinds of ideas and sounds can be brought in from other sources, i.e. Takemitsu suggests quoting material/themes from Toru Takemitsu’s work November Steps.

The title and imagery of the work is a cartoonish depiction of the 1971 Dutch television debate between linguist Noam Chomsky and philosopher Michel Foucault on the subject of human nature. Each bark at the other, and while they do not come to an agreement, they unwittingly display human nature in the form of argumentation.

Bio:

Dr. Daniel Schnee is an ethnomusicologist and saxophonist who has performed worldwide with over twenty different Juno and Grammy™ Award winning musicians. He has also been internationally recognized as a graphic score composer, and is a former student of both Pulitzer Prize-winning saxophonist Ornette Coleman, and legendary Japanese GUTAI artist Shozo Shimamoto.

Media:

https://danielpaulschnee.wordpress.com

https://chollobhat.wordpress.com


Friday, January 23, 2015

comics as music notation

allow me to invite you to an anthology, where music is written in the form of (experimental) comics.

comics can be read or watched, but it can also be played. we can also create comics that are especially meant to be played (on various musical instruments). sometimes the words in speech balloons can be sung, the onomatopoeias (sound effects) also give us great opportunities. well, it's obvious that composers often use graphic notation to write music - it would be great to see works where comics are used this way in our anthology.

a quick search of similar works:
http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/807/391/63d.gif http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/807/392/234.gif http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/KF/2007/01/note/cardew_-_treatiseP183.jpg http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/KF/2007/01/note/Earle_Brown_Cross_Sections_and_Color_Fields.jpg http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/KF/2007/01/note/Oresteia_Iannis_Xenakis.jpg http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/KF/2007/01/note/stockhausen_-_Kontakte_1.jpg http://abstractcomics.blogspot.com/2010/04/morton-feldmans-graph-notation.html http://www.tonedeafcomics.com/comic/extinct-music-notations/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic_notation http://www.cnvill.net/mfgriff.htm http://www.wired.com/2014/11/instrument-turns-musical-notation-simple-visual-system http://konokopia.typepad.com/konokopia/2010/10/scroll-as-music.html http://retaildesignblog.net/2015/01/19/soundweaving-by-zsanett-szirmay/

edit (some more links): http://www.sinfinimusic.com/uk/features/blogs/ears-have-eyes/graphic-scores http://vbn.aau.dk/files/14524203/gnt.pdf

you are the composer/experimental comic artist, feel free to create your own ways.

the anthology will be a pdf file that you can print. a copy will also be sent to the National Library in Warsaw, Poland.

A4 format, vertical.

deadline: till the end of December 2015.

each author can send as many pages as he or she wishes. please sign each piece - there will be no "Contents" page.

please send the comics (graphic files: gif, png or jpg - not pdf) to pszren@wp.pl as attachments.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

sound comic strips

I've created a record with my voice. I mean it's with my reading (or singing, whistling and so on) of the comic strips. The comics are used as music notation. The comic strips are here:

Dźwiękowe paski komiksowe by pszren