After experiencing real time visualization of the fugue, I moved on to analyzing the music, which I could only do using the score. This raised the important philosophical question for me of whether I can treat the score as interchangeable with the musical piece itself. My view is that the score is a line of code instructing the realization of the fugue such that it is not the musical piece itself, but is a valid substitute for analyzing structural musical elements. The same elements could be theoretically gathered from listening, the “true” channel of music perception, but it is in fact more plausible to do so by analyzing the score. Additionally, from the perspective of the player, hearing music comes with looking at the notations laid out on the page.

Thus in my analysis of the fugue, I started by looking at the score and exploring different modes of score representation. “Since at least the 14th-century composers have questioned the visual boundaries of the musical score. From the heart-shaped chanson of Baude Cordier in the Chantilly Codex to the Hörpartitur created in 1970 by Rainer Wehinger for György Ligeti’s Artikulation. Graphic uses of notation have expanded the available palette for composers beyond the limitations of the 5-line staff.”

First I looked at pages of non-conventional notating composers, like Sylvano Bussotti, Luigi Russolo of the Futurist movement, and John Cage. Although the notations were adapted to meet technical needs, like accomodating for non standard orchestral instruments, I used these excerpts of novel music notation to explore formal possibilities.