These graphic scores all operate based on a guiding principle that follows a consistent pattern for the same music sequences. After understanding these patterns, I improvised with making a few of my own graphic scores, in part to understand how score construction affects perception of the music from the player’s perspective and how the deviation from standard conception of what music looks like affects the music produced. I chose Paganini’s Cantabile for this exercise.

The following graphic score is governed by a basic rule: a pineapple equals a half note, apple equals quarter note, lime equals eighth note, and lemon equals sixteenth note. The spatial positions are based on the staff, but the lines are removed. The sheet is purged in single color. The arrangement of the floating fruit implies a progression continuously to the right. This visualization follows a straightforward rule and only two elements were changed (note value and the staff), but already the result seems so distant from what we’d typically associate with music, as if the new score leans more toward visual art. The structure of this first score was unchanged, however, so with the second version I sought to implement my own structure.