TRANSLATING GRAPHIC SCORES INTO MUSIC

You may follow links to listen to short sound-bites of each graphic score by clicking HERE

My graphic scores serve primarily as an aid to memory of the initial inspiration.

These scores range from something resembling a painting to diagrams with pictorial representations of instruments on them. They always read from Left to Right with regard to linear Time progression. They will often be Coloured and these colours represent energies and/or moods in the music or indicate instruments that produce these same colours upon the inner planes. Some sounds are more Extrovert whilst others are more Introvert and so, too, with colours.

In a certain sense, each graphic score is designed for the specific piece of music concerned as I do not have a 'system' as such. Each application is, therefore, somewhat unique.

Because my music is primarily improvised, when there is a graphic score it represents a basic structure or a suggested chain of musical events. Just as some composers might jot down a melody that comes to them, so I may have an inspiration for a piece and then make a picture of it to translate into music when I have the opportunity. Because one of my main interests since 1970 has been in producing meditation music, I will begin an improvisation from a state of meditation. Sometimes the more pictorial graphic scores depict the archetypal symbols of the meditation (e.g. "Sanctuary of Peace/Temple of Isis" to view this click HERE). These 'paintings' then serve to remind me of the energy that I wish to channel from this inner meditative source during the sequence of the music. The colours in graphic scores will also be translated via planetary correspondences into numerological correspondences within the realm of rhythm, or into a basic overall mood (of the piece or section so coloured), or be related to specific instruments which I perceive to channel these same planetary energies or specific colours that will then predominate in the section so coloured. e.g. one of my ancient Tibetan Singing Bowls might produce the colours Blue and White upon the Astral plane and so, were I to need either of these colours at a section in the music, which would suit Tibetan Singing Bowls, it would be there to be chosen amongst other instruments also seen by my inner vision to create Blue or White. This is not a form of synaesthesia - it requires a concerted effort to perceive such phenomena on my part and not all of my instruments possess such attributes.

In the above score, "Treasure of the Mountain", the dense dark red patch on the left is for the opening Gong (38" PAISTE 'Earth Gong') accompanied by 'Whale' sounds (stroked Gongs); followed by Tibetan Singing Bowls, followed by a Pair of Tibetan Singing Bowls matched to produce 'constructive interference patterns' - hence the wavy line - next is the symbol for the Sun symbolising the striking of a PAISTE 'Sun Gong' accompanied by a 'choir' of Tibetan "Water Spirit" Singing bowls.

This piece derives its inspiration from a painting of the same name by Russian artist Nicholas Roerich.

To LISTEN to a sample please click HERE

There is also a more detailed explanation of how the painting was translated into musical form, which may further illumine how the above score became music including short sound-bite).

Click HERE.

from the painting Treasure of the Mountain

by Professor Nicholas Roerich courtesy of the Roerich Museum, New York. Visit their SITE to view more paintings

Part of my musical language within the field of improvisation are sections of Indeterminate sounds. This is only one of my compositional techniques and only features when intuitively determined. These can be purely indeterminate or a form of aleatoric music. In the former, one such example would be a collection of Tibetan Singing Bowls that work with Water. Each one is played separately with no reference to any of the others - each plays at its own rhythm and in total they produce what the composer Hovhaness referred to as a 'Spirit Murmur' (Hovhaness is credited as being the first Western composer to use this technique in the 1940s - for more on Hovhaness click HERE). Another instance represents what could be termed 'organised chaos': e.g. a 'family' of Tibetan Singing Bowls called Jump bowls (these change pitch whilst being played by adjusting the distance between the palm of the hand and the base of the bowl) where each one will be playing the exact same rhythm (say a 'Bo Diddley rhythm - see below) yet each at their own metric speeds. The larger bowls are generally deeper and will play their rhythm slower than smaller bowls. Added to this, the technical difficulty of playing such a bowl often means that there will be small variations in its timing making the rhythm inexact. There is no strictly musical approach applied here, as each bowl has its own organic timing, and so the outcome is indeterminate. Such sections of music can be depicted in various ways in the graphic score; e.g. for Water Bowls it would be wavy lines - if one bowl, then one wavy line; if a 'choir' of such bowls, then wavy lines above in ascending lines relative to approximate pitches of the bowls and the suggested starting points will also be depicted. Some of my pieces conclude with a section for swung gongs and various other swung instruments in an aleatoric passage sometimes contrasted with an addition of one or more organised sounds e.g. tolling bells or melodic passage on bowed tuned discs. Purely indeterminate instruments could be a 'Rain' Gong, Rain Stick, or various Wind chimes, etc.

'Bo Diddly' rhythm

Certainly, colours will be involved and dynamic markings (most usually crescendos or decrescendos) and other lines depicting energy e.g. straight vertical lines would represent: Male Descending, Ascending or Centring energy; simply a feeling of being Still within oneself; a period of actual silence in the music; or Vertical harmony.

In the score for "STAR PEACE" (ZODIAC" pictured above) the colours are for the Signs of the Zodiac whilst these signs are depicted either upon the Inside or the Outside of the circle representing their Positive or Negative energies. From this you will get one idea of how I translate a specific colour into an energy providing you possess a basic understanding of Astrology (not of the tabloid press variety!). Around the circle are pictorial representations of the different instruments used for each section. On the inside are the titles of the 12 paintings by Nicholas Roerich for which this music was composed (to view these, alongside a more detailed account of the instrumentation for each section, and soundbites, click HERE). The graph is in the form of a circle to represent that the music, although in 12 different parts, moves continuously without any gaps but rather, like with Nature, each separate energy transforms or is metamorphosed into the succeeding soundscape or energy-field. For instance, the final sounds of Pisces (last Sign) are exactly the same as the opening sounds for Aries (first Sign). The entire piece is rather like taking a boat journey along a long river that passes through various countries and changing scenery.

© Frank Perry, 2002. All of these articles are copyright. They may individually be copied and shared with others in a spirit of knowledge-sharing and fair play, but they may not be sold, printed or reproduced in quantity or changed in form without the permission of the copyright holder. None of this material may be reproduced in workshops or lectures of any kind unless quotes are credited or properly attributed.

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