This week's Disquiet Junto project is about interpreting a graphic notation score by musician and composer Franziska Baumann.

More on the 654th weekly Disquiet Junto project at https://disquiet.com/0654/

The cover image for this project is a detail of a graphic score, titled True Glimpses 1, by Franziska Baumann, used with her permission and the support of Musikfestival Bern. More on Baumann at franziskabaumann.ch.

Disquiet Junto Project 0654: Just Notation

More on the 654th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Just Notation — The Assignment: Interpret a graphic score by Franziska Baumann — at https://disquiet.com/0654/

The image of the graphic score was inverted and sonified in the Metasynth image synth, the result of which was fed into a RAVE model trained on recent halF unusuaL tracks using Cocoon within Morpho from the wonderful people at Neutone ... This is the result and you can enjoy the accompanying visuals at https://youtu.be/GWVLIyx5kMM 

The cover image for this project uses detail from a graphic score, titled True Glimpses 1, by Franziska Baumann, used with her permission and the support of Musikfestival Bern. More on Baumann at http://www.franziskabaumann.ch/en/

visuals (YouTube)

halF noteD [disquiet0654]

An intuitive response to the graphic score derived from visual glimpses, as the title suggests. It comprises a series of atonal or microtonal sound clusters structured horizontally and vertically. The track was created in Pure Data with some additional reverb, etc.

More on the 654th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Just Notation — The Assignment: Interpret a graphic score by Franziska Baumann — at https://disquiet.com/0654/

The cover image for this project is a detail of a graphic score, titled True Glimpses 1, by Franziska Baumann, used with her permission and the support of Musikfestival Bern. More on Baumann at franziskabaumann.ch 2.

Just Glimpses (disquiet0654)

‘ordo ab chao’
Track created for the Disquiet Junto Project. http://www.disquiet.com
0654 =  Just Notation. Interpret a graphic score by Franziska Baumann.

Luna is a little atonal piece of improvised music for the piano, reflecting the stochastic character of this notation made up of lines, strokes, dusts, stains and transparencies.

Tools :
UAD Ravel Grand Piano.
NE Ruina, Waves Abbey Road Chambers, UAD Lexicon 224, and a few little 'prepared' fx :)
Recorded live, mixed and mastered with Logic Pro X.

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More on this 654th Disquiet Junto project ("Just Notation. Interpret a graphic score by Franziska Baumann") at:
https://disquiet.com/0654

More on the Disquiet Junto at:
https://disquiet.com/junto/

Project discussion takes place on https://llllllll.co/

Associated image : Petrus Major.

Luna [disquiet 0654]

Content note: there are two mentions of self-harm in this track.

The invitation for this week's Disquiet Junto (#0654, "Just Notation") was to interpret a piece of graphic notation sheet music, a composition titled "True Glimpses" by Swiss experimental musician Franziska Baumann. 

The sheet music is organized into 5 rows of 7 staves. I interpreted the rows as vertically stacked layers and the columns as divisions of time. You can see the notation here: https://disquiet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/TrueGlimpes-1-Franziska-Baumann-scaled.jpg

My interpretative performance consists of 5 layers of instrumentation (percussion, bass, synth pad, keys, and ebow guitar) exploring a sonic space divided into 7 tableaus. All tracks were recorded as improvised single takes without edits while following along with the score.

Self-reflection works best in stereo, so please enjoy "True Glimpses (Self-Portrait) with an empathetic pair of headphones. Recorded at NOSIGNAL Multimedia Lab in The Shambles. Chicago, USA.

More about this week's Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/0654

Disquiet Junto

True Glimpses (Self-Portrait) (disquiet0654)

More on the 654th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Just Notation — The Assignment: Interpret a graphic score by Franziska Baumann — at https://disquiet.com/0654/ 2

The Spirit Of The Thing Itself (disquiet0654)

Submission to @dsqt Junto #654 “just notation”

just so [disquiet0654]

walk by your hand

The Assignment: Interpret a graphic score by Franziska Baumann.

See the feature-reel here: https://www.instagram.com/p/C9iXpNfMHa9/

There were many options with this particular graphical notation. Since I had an academic background, I initially planned to make 7 x 5 tiny piano movements. 

But – this time together with my girlfriend – we focused on the artistic quality of the notation. The inner images of a little story of a trip from New Jersey to Manhattan emerged. 

With and beyond all the noise of life, there is a deep trust.

By musically connecting many of her field recordings through a trip from New Jersey to NYC, we orchestrated many different impressions together while maintaining contact with the former academic, now cacophonous expression of notation.

Taking the staves into account, accelerations and rhythmically inappropriate situations underlined our approach.

Enjoy!

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More on the 654th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Just Notation — The Assignment: Interpret a graphic score by Franziska Baumann — at https://disquiet.com/0654/

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The cover image for this track contains a detail of a graphic score, titled True Glimpses 1, by Franziska Baumann, used with her permission and the support of Musikfestival Bern. More on Baumann at franziskabaumann.ch

walk by your hand (disquiet0654)

More on the 654th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Just Notation — The Assignment: Interpret a graphic score by Franziska Baumann — at https://disquiet.com/0654/

The purpose of a musical score to me is a live performance of a piece of music which might or might not be recorded. Thinking about the graphic score vs. traditional sheet music I came to the conclusion that it must contain additional information specific to a certain instrument like timbre or knob movements or the like. So I tried to perform the piece with different instruments, Flute, Clarinet and Synths.

In the end I decided the piece was a trio for Korg NTS-1. The three voices can be identified by different colors and note sizes in the score. The notes are all Ds but on different octaves. Lines and textures give hints about knob movements and density.

Disquiet0654 - 8_PO

Graphic scores can be so beautiful as graphics, and also, sometimes, so very evocative as scores. I agree with the idea mentioned by @XHG that the main use of a score of any type is to allow music players to perform what the composer was imagining. In the case of a graphic score the directions are more ambiguous than a traditionally notated score. Thus we have all the beautiful interpretations submitted for this Junto, so varied, yet all inspired in some way by the same beautiful score by Franziska Baumann.

I don't know how to read western notation, and I can't play the piano, but I tried to perform the piece I imagined based on this score live with a grand piano patch from Roli's Equator while sending into FX in my modular which I tweaked to produce the echoes and scratchy fills which were responding to the pitches and levels of the performance in real time. I also used some plug-ins to shape the sound in Pro Tools. Modular FX included resonance, filters, PLL, modulators, delays. Pro Tools plug-ins included EQ, dynamics, tremolo, delay, and mastering tools.

So, after practicing and a lot of parameter tweaking, I recorded an improvisation of 35 short performance bursts, trying to capture the clusters of kinetic energy in the score, along with its layers and ambiguities and interconnections.

In the end I felt I needed to tighten up the spaces between the clusters after recording. Then quick mastering, and here you are..

Thanks to Mark, Tobias, and Franziska!

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More on the 654th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Just Notation — The Assignment: Interpret a graphic score by Franziska Baumann — at https://disquiet.com/0654/ 2

The cover image for this project is a detail of a graphic score, titled True Glimpses 1, by Franziska Baumann, used with her permission and the support of Musikfestival Bern. More on Baumann at franziskabaumann.ch 7.

Just Glimpses zoundsabar disquiet0654

This was my contribution for Disquiet Junto Project 0654: Just Notation. 
Here’s a copy of my post on the Disquiet Junto 0654 discussion thread on Lines:
In studying the graphic score "True Glimpses 1" by Franziska Baumann, the abstract notations reminded me of the random generative sounds that can be created using a Krell Patch on a modular synthesizer. In this piece, I used a version of the patch on a semi-modular Make Noise Easel – 0-Coast, 0-Ctrl and Strega. The audio was recorded to Ableton Live where I added reverb from Valhalla Supermassive. An additional track was added via MIDI keyboard using the Fors Tela plugin. Used Supermassive again as well as Aberrant DSP Lair "occult reverberator" for effects on that track. In studying the graphic score "True Glimpses 1" by Franziska Baumann, the abstract notations reminded me of the random generative sounds that can be created using a Krell Patch on a modular synthesizer. In this piece, I used a version of the patch on a semi-modular Make Noise Easel – 0-Coast, 0-Ctrl and Strega. The audio was recorded to Ableton Live where I added reverb from Valhalla Supermassive. An additional track was added via MIDI keyboard using the Fors Tela plugin. Used Supermassive again as well as Aberrant DSP Lair "occult reverberator" for effects on that track. Sun photo by Alexey Demidov via Pexels.

More on the 654th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Just Notation — The Assignment: Interpret a graphic score by Franziska Baumann — at https://disquiet.com/0654/ 2
The cover image for this project is a detail of a graphic score, titled True Glimpses 1, by Franziska Baumann, used with her permission and the support of Musikfestival Bern. More on Baumann at franziskabaumann.ch 7.

Flux Erosion Event [disquiet0654]

interpreted the graphic score as a 5x7 grid of individual segments. each has a burst triggering a physical modelling voice (rings modifying a plaits noise source). macro control for each segment going into burst amount, pitch offset, rate of lfos controlling various parameters. interpret intensity in each segment of score as the amount of macro control for that segment.

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More on the 654th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Just Notation — The Assignment: Interpret a graphic score by Franziska Baumann — at https://disquiet.com/0654/ 2

The cover image for this project is a detail of a graphic score, titled True Glimpses 1, by Franziska Baumann, used with her permission and the support of Musikfestival Bern. More on Baumann at franziskabaumann.ch 7.

disquiet0654 - thirty-five bursts

The Assignment: Interpret a graphic score by Franziska Baumann.

More on the 654th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Just Notation — The Assignment: Interpret a graphic score by Franziska Baumann — at https://disquiet.com/0654/

The cover image for this project is a detail of a graphic score, titled True Glimpses 1, by Franziska Baumann, used with her permission and the support of Musikfestival Bern [you can see the image at disquiet.com/0654/]. More on Baumann at franziskabaumann.ch.

The image used for this song is one of my paintings. © Don MacKeen 2024

graphic design [disquiet0654]

More on the 654th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Just Notation — The Assignment: Interpret a graphic score by Franziska Baumann — at https://disquiet.com/0654/

The cover image for this project is a detail of a graphic score, titled True Glimpses 1, by Franziska Baumann, used with her permission and the support of Musikfestival Bern. More on Baumann at franziskabaumann.ch.

True Glimpses 1 Cluster Burn (disquiet0654)

More on the 654th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Just Notation — The Assignment: Interpret a graphic score by Franziska Baumann — at https://disquiet.com/0654/

The cover image for this project is a detail of a graphic score, titled True Glimpses 1, by Franziska Baumann, used with her permission and the support of Musikfestival Bern. More on Baumann at franziskabaumann.ch

Another Glimpse [Disquiet0654]

Disquiet Junto Project 0654: Just Notation
The Assignment: Interpret a graphic score by Franziska Baumann.

This project is the second of three that are being done over the course of as many months in collaboration with the 2024 Musikfestival Bern, which will be held in Switzerland from September 4 through 8 (details at musikfestivalbern.ch). We are working at the invitation of Tobias Reber, an early Junto participant, who manages the festival’s educational activities. This year is the sixth in a row that the Junto has collaborated with Musikfestival Bern.

Step 1: Spend time observing this graphic score by Franziska Baumann, the Swiss composer and musician who is part of this year’s Musikfestival Bern. It is titled True Glimpses 1. There is a larger version available for download 12. More on Baumann at franziskabaumann.ch 7.

Step 2: Consider how the image in Step 1 can be interpreted as a graphic score. (If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of graphic notation, read up and join the conversion at the llllllll.co 3 link below.)

Step 3: Record a piece of music that interprets the graphic score from Step 1.

Tasks Upon Completion:

Label: Include “disquiet0654” (no spaces/quotes) in the name of your track.

Upload: Post your track to a public account (SoundCloud preferred but by no means required). It’s best to focus on one track, but if you post more than one, clarify which is the “main” rendition.

Share: Post your track and a description/explanation at https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0654-just-notation/

Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you.

Deadline: Monday, July 15, 2024, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.

About: https://disquiet.com/junto/ 1

Newsletter: https://juntoletter.disquiet.com/ 1

License: It’s preferred (but not required) to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., an attribution Creative Commons license)

WOT NO TABS! -disquiet0654

sound art for disquiet0654.

More on the 654th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Just Notation — The Assignment: Interpret a graphic score by Franziska Baumann — at https://disquiet.com/0654/ 2

woken by cats (disquiet0654)

Disquiet Junto Project 0654: Just Notation The Assignment: Interpret a graphic score by Franziska Baumann.

Looking at the graphic score for True Glimpses 1, several things struck me. 
First and foremost: the way the score does engage with elements of traditional notation — there’s the five line stave and there are notes — yet uses them in such a way that what traditional notation provides — exact timing and pitch of what is played — is in no way available. This seems like a very deliberate choice: it would have been quite easy to simply omit these elements if a piece is not meant to engage with any sort of traditional harmony, melody or rhythm.
The second thing that struck me was that there is a clear structure: 5 x 7 parts of — more or less — equal size that mostly do not seem to overlap. Also, each of them is unique: there are no obviously repeating patterns, or parts of patterns here. As for the character of the music, it seemed to me that the music would have be rather chaotic and rather in-your-face.

Trying out some things, different setups, I landed on the idea of using a couple of audio effects in series with acoustic instruments as inputs: a gate (to create short staccato snippets); a delay (to multiply those snippets); a pitch-shifter (to create different pitches from a single input) and then to combine them using feedback-routing, so that the outputs of one effect would feed back as input into other effects, creating unpredictable musical patterns as outcome; patterns that, while still originating (and retaining some aspects of) traditional pitch and timing, at the same time would have become ‘unstuck’ from their origins, would escape from the stave, so to speak.

Through trial and error, I collected a bunch of somewhat chaotic and in-your-face bursts of music/noise that I then ordered and combined to form the (5 x 7) short bits of the piece.
In the end, I opted for 3 x 7, due to time constraints in working on the piece, and also because I had some doubts whether the piece would really sustain interest beyond the 2,5 minutes that it is now.

More on the 654th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Just Notation — The Assignment: Interpret a graphic score by Franziska Baumann — at https://disquiet.com/0654/
Image: Graphic score by Franziska Baumann for her composition True Glimpses 1

21 Splinters (disquiet0654)

More on the 654th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Just Notation — The Assignment: Interpret a graphic score by Franziska Baumann — at https://disquiet.com/0654/ 2

The cover image for this project is a detail of a graphic score, titled True Glimpses 1, by Franziska Baumann, used with her permission and the support of Musikfestival Bern. More on Baumann at franziskabaumann.ch

True Glimpses 1 [excerpts] (disquiet 0654)

I took Franziska Baumann's score and chose to read it left-to-right, top-to-bottom. However, I restricted myself to the first row of seven ideograms, mostly due to time constraints. I took each and transcribed the notes into Ableton and considered each to represent a bar. I then repeated the sequence six times with various instruments. I interpreted the smudges as harmonic distortion.

6 fifths (disquiet0654)

My 33 1/3 series book about the Aphex Twin album <i>Selected Ambient Works Volume II</i> was published in 2014. The book was one of the top 5 bestselling titles for the calendar year, and in 2015 was ranked by Pitchfork as one of the "33 best" of the 100-plus books in the 33 1/3 series. It has subsequently been translated into Japanese (2019) and Spanish (2018)

Since 2012 I have moderated the Disquiet Junto group, which began on SoundCloud. More at disquiet.com/junto. 

I've written for Nature, Pitchfork, The Wire, Down Beat, Boing Boing, NewMusicBox, Red Bull Music Academy, Art Practical, the website of The Atlantic, and many other publications. 

I've exhibited sound art at galleries in Los Angeles (Crewest), Manhattan (apex art), and Dubai (DUTAC), and I had a audio-visual installation at the San Jose Museum of Art as part of its 45th anniversary.

And since 1996 I've run the website Disquiet.com about the intersection of sound, art, and technology.