2. SETTING THE TONE

Hope’s compositional practice engages with many tropes of the classical Western Art Music tradition, whilst discarding others. From a philosophical hermeneutic perspective, we may say that Hope is aware of the historicality of her being-in-the-world (Heidegger, Reference Heidegger2008). That is, she understands that human knowledge and practice are borne out of tradition and culture. She acknowledges she has inherited a particular notation system that has been passed down to her through tradition and she thus understands the cultural traditions within which her work is positioned. She is aware of her situation, aware that her interpretation of the history of Western art music is precisely hers and that one’s understanding of history and tradition is both transformative and formative. Which is to say that when one arrives at an understanding, they are transformed by that understanding, but equally, through that transformation we are able to generate new formations of understanding. Transformation is a process of formation that structures subsequent understanding. An awareness of such a process of understanding history, tradition, and oneself in the hermeneutic sense (Gadamer Reference Gadamer2013) means that Hope understands that the culture of which is she is a part is not stable or fixed.

The technology she employs to facilitate her compositional practice was not available to those generations that established the notational traditions passed on to Hope. Hope demonstrates a certain responsiveness to her historical situation – a responsiveness that we may say has been at the forefront of all significant cultural change. An inheritor of a particular notation system that we refer to as ‘common practice notation’ (CPN) (Dannenberg Reference Dannenberg1993: 21), Hope has made a conscious decision to reorganise the fundamental hierarchies established within that historical system to better reflect the modern world. In doing so, she has sought to establish a different approach to reading and performing music that facilitates more open systems of pitch organisation and stylistic input.

Hope’s compositional practice engages graphic notation put into motion, often referred to as a kind of animated notation (Hope Reference Hope2017a). This is facilitated via the ‘Decibel ScorePlayer’ iPad application (Hope and Vickery Reference Hope and Vickery2011: 2), which provides a tool to coordinate multiple performers reading an animated, moving score during performance. Hope’s notation drastically changes the performer’s relationship to the compositional material contained within each score. The score is created as a software image file in full colour complied with certain other materials (outlined below) into a unique file type that is uploaded to the iPad application. Some of the more obvious differences between CPN and the notation facilitated by this digital presentation include:

1. 1. By putting score information in motion, a static staff is replaced with a dynamic one. This results in more accurate, coordinated reading of graphic notation. ^{Footnote 1}

2. 2. The scores include information that fixes tempo, instructions, parts if required and ‘direction’ information (challenging the left to right reading paradigm).

3. 3. The scores have the capacity to contain pre-made sounds included in the composition, effectively creating a ‘super score’ (Emmerson Reference Emmerson and Emmerson2016: 131), where notation and fixed audio media can be synchronised accurately and be clearly linked together conceptually and practically.

4. 4. The score contains information that enables it to ‘communicate’ with a remote computer via the Open Sound Control protocol (Hope, Wyatt and Vickery Reference Hope, Wyatt and Vickery2015: 316). This can be used to signal elements in a Max Patch, for example.

Influenced by early coloured drawing drafts for compositions by composers such as Iannis Xenakis and György Ligeti (James and Vickery Reference James and Vickery2018), Hope replaces monotone black and white scores with a full range of colour and shade. This colour is usually used to prescribe instrumentation, and shade for dynamics and/or textural information. Rather than split instruments across numerous staves, by assigning different instruments a colour, each player can easily and clearly identify relationships between instruments because they are right there next to one another. As proportional scores, their pitch relationships are clearly described, as they can be clearly seen to move closer or farther away, or even cross other instruments. A vertical line signals the point of performance – this is known as the ‘playhead’ (Hope and Vickery Reference Hope and Vickery2011: 4).

A key element of Hope’s compositional practice is the re-organising of compositional hierarchies that has developed through her engagement with this notational system. Hope asks performers to choose a pitch to start the work, but the choice is governed by simple proportional rules that are maintained throughout. For example, most of her works use the highest point of the digital page as the highest pitch, the lowest the lowest pitch, and performers must navigate these parameters in relation to each other. Whilst the score is very strictly controlled in terms of time within the automation of the ‘Decibel ScorePlayer’, set by the composer and embedded in the score document, there are elements of indeterminacy in regard to pitch in each work. Thus, while one instrument’s pitch sequence may begin with an ascent, that ascent may begin from an E2 in one performance, and a D3 in the next, for example. Hope’s works are also characterised by a focus on drones and glissandi, which are poorly represented in CPN. The ‘Decibel ScorePlayer’ presentation coordinates an accurate and clear reading of such techniques.

What we notice when we consider the implications of this practice is that many of those aspects of traditional notation that make it difficult to read – complex pitch and rhythm groupings, for instance – are alleviated. While Hope’s works embody a certain complexity of their own, the notation does not render this complexity inaccessible to performers operating outside Western art music. Thus, whereas CPN makes complex music available only to players trained in that notation practice, Hope’s approach to notation makes complex music available to players who do not necessarily read notation at all: non-Western performers, improvisers, rock musicians, and so forth. In light of this, we can notice how Hope’s work responds to what she sees as an issue with Western art music – its reliance on a particular notational system that limits access only to those well versed in the reading of CPN. Hope seeks a way to welcome musicians from disparate backgrounds to engage in Western art music and perform her works and works by other composers whose compositions have been arranged to be read via the ‘Decibel ScorePlayer’. ^{Footnote 2} Thus, Hope’s works demonstrate certain wisdom in their reconsideration of dominant paradigms, enabling the wisdom of performers’ musicianship, rather their CPN reading ability, to emerge. This in itself opens up the act of music reading to a much broader and stylistically diverse range of backgrounds.

This leads to an idea of sonic wisdom as an opening up, or welcoming in, of sounds for compositional and performative consideration. For example, let us consider how wisdom might be manifest in R. M. Schafer’s acoustic ecology and works such as John Cage’s 4′33″ –each engaging with sounds of the environment in different ways. On the one hand, Schafer’s acoustic ecology examines the relationship between human beings and their environment through listening engagement (Schafer Reference Schafer1993). We hear, for example, the presence or absence of certain sounds, or the frequency or volume of sounds, and this provides insight into the character of the environment in question. But importantly, it invites listeners and creators of these works to think of these natural environments compositionally. On the other hand, Cage’s 4′33″ creates almost the reverse. The formality of this work being ‘scored’ creates a scenario in which the concertgoers listen to and experience the environment they are in as music, again, creating a kind of access to compositional thinking facilitated by a ‘performance’. Each approach frames the naturally occurring sounds of the environment in a way that challenges the listener to rethink how sounds constitute music and take the opportunity to be guided by their organisation as a form of composition. Similarly, Hope’s music takes the range of sounds available to a performer and provides a structure in which they are guided in relation to each other. This approach requires a careful listening and musicianship from performers: qualities that are common across all music styles. Just as Cage and Schafer embrace all sounds in the compositional frameworks, Hope enables all musicians. The open elements of the notations enables performers to bring their style with them to the work in a way in which CPN does not, and it becomes an integral part of the work. Hope then aims to refocus the listener’s attention to the sound itself, noting that:

What we can derive from Hope’s statement is that in her practice she seeks to reveal certain acoustical possibilities via a close examination of sound from the perspective of the composer, performer or listener, and that it is by attending to sound itself that these possibilities are expressed. The wisdom of art speaks to each subject differently. This is not to suggest that aesthetic experience is merely subjective, but rather, the objectivity of the artwork discloses itself to the individual each time in different and perhaps unexpected ways (Malpas Reference Malpas2012). That artworks reveal themselves in potentially unknowable ways does not undermine the wisdom contained within. The way in which we receive such works as individual is a reflection more of one’s own subjectivities and prejudice rather than a reflection of the wisdom of the work itself. The way in which the individual attends to and experiences an artwork is always structured by their prior understanding of art and the world more broadly (Gadamer Reference Gadamer2013). In this way, there are always aspects of the artwork that go beyond the spectator. While one can never hope to exhaust the meaning of a work of art, one can assume a certain attitude that may assist them in accessing the inherent knowledge of art and sound. Such an attitude may include, but is not limited to, questioning tradition, coming to terms with one’s prejudice, and with respect to Hope’s work, embracing technologies that facilitate new ways of engaging with art. The inclusion of electronic sounds is part of this questioning of tradition, reinforcing the idea expressed earlier that transforming the range of sounds is indeed a formative act.

3. QUESTIONING TRADITION

Western art music has, in a way, siloed itself through increasingly complex and codified notation systems, segregating music into genres and styles. Hope makes a concerted effort to break down this hierarchy by establishing her own alternative to CPN, while still trying to maintain a semblance of traditional Western art music values without segregation. These values include the upholding of the composer/performer binary, retaining complexity and embracing the new practices of the day. Hope responds to this aspect of her work by stating:

4. TRANSFERRING WISDOM

We are using the phrase ‘sonic wisdom’ to refer to the wisdom or knowledge embodied in music. Typically, when we think of ‘wisdom’ or ‘knowledge’ we consider it to be transferable – philosophers write books explaining how to live an ethical life, for example. The written or spoken word facilitates that explaining. This raises the question of how wisdom in instrumental music is transferred from the composer, to the performer and then to the listener. If we consider wisdom as a kind of intelligence that has evolved through the accumulation and synthesis of knowledge, we can perhaps describe the experience of music as something that is not merely subjective, but something that bears within it a type of knowledge or wisdom. Hope notes that:

On the one hand, we may say that the wisdom of music is not as easily quantifiable as the wisdom of science, for instance. But on the other hand, we may argue that the wisdom of science is simply narrower. Heidegger writes that ‘mathematics is not more rigorous than historiology, but only narrower, because the existential foundations relevant for it lie within a narrower range’ (Reference Heidegger2008: 195). When we consider the breadth of the humanities and the wisdom that music, for instance, attempts to transmit, it is a broad wisdom that speaks beyond the narrow confines of scientific method.

Hope refers to the ambiguity of the wisdom of art and reframes it as powerful. Heidegger’s 1935–7 lectures on The Origin of the Work of Art (Heidegger Reference Heidegger2013) notes a difference between truth as ‘correctness’ and truth and ‘unconcealment’. Too often, when people speak of knowledge, wisdom or truth, they are referring to correctness. But the power of art, as Heidegger recognised, is its ability to unveil truths about the world. Hope writes that we receive these truths, of which there is not one but many, by offering our own ‘personal reading of – or listening to – music’. Truth as unconcealment offers insight into our own being-in-the-world. For instance, Heidegger sees an Ancient Greek temple as an artwork that offers truths about a people’s relationship with their god(s), and it ‘makes visible the invisible space of air’ (Heidegger Reference Heidegger2013: 41), and ‘in its standing there, first gives to things their look and to men their outlook on themselves’ (ibid.: 42). This, we suggest, aligns with the wisdom accessible through sound and music. By extension, Hope’s notated works serve a role similar to Heidegger’s temple. They hold truths about a performer’s relationship to sound, as articulated in the rendering of her idea. The openness of Hope’s animated notation, in comparison to CPN, facilitates an examination of the performers themselves and the stylistic forms they bring to the composition. Further, her notational practice demonstrates the potential of accessibility and inclusivity in contemporary Western art music more broadly.

5. EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY

Hope’s embracing of technology is embodied in her notation. On their own, as printed or e-documents, the scores are unperformable – even with a conductor there is no way of coordinating their performance. This is because they do not use pulse as a framework to measure time. As such, the ‘Decibel ScorePlayer’ was developed by a group of composers and performers, the Decibel New Music ensemble, that Hope directs. The application facilitated Hope’s use of graphic scores through a collaborative authorship process:

The invention and popularisation of the printing press shaped not only how we share and distribute music but also, as we learnt from Goehr (Reference Goehr2007), how we conceive of musical works more generally. Western art music has seen few successful alternatives to CPN, but there is a possibility that developments such as animated notation are significant enough to see a similar reconfiguring of how we think about music more generally as we found with the printing press or even the tempering of the score. Hope is particularly passionate about this idea:

It is worth considering what some musicians and songwriters consider to be the alienating nature of CPN, as employed in Western art music. While there is no doubt that the increased complexity of such a system has afforded certain composers and performers the ability to create incredible works of art, there is also a sense in which this complexity closes off contributions from practices beyond the scope of such a system. Of course, Hope is not the first to attempt to create a practice that levels the playing field. Zorn’s Cobra is an example of a work that encourages musicians from different backgrounds and genres to perform together (Brackett Reference Brackett2010). Yet here are many differences between Zorn’s Cobra and Hope’s compositional practice; the most significant being the level of improvisation. Whereas Cobra is largely improvisational, Hope’s compositional practice is more prescribed, if less so than CPN.

When performers are required to adhere to and play certain ideas composed by another, notational systems are clearly of benefit. Hope finds a balance between traditional compositional values on the one hand, and accessibility on the other. She is the ‘composer’ just as, for example, composers who align themselves with CPN are. Her scores embody and articulate a certain idea that is not necessarily an invitation to improvise in the sense that Zorn’s Cobra demands improvisation of performers. Rather, they reposition the hierarchy of choices a performer makes when reading notation. Timbre and dynamics become more important than pitch or rhythm for example, and performer choices are related to the decisions made by other performers, not just by the composer. Hope’s works are accessible to a wide range of musicians, without her necessarily having to simplify her ideas.

Sounds hold a lot of detail, energy (Kahn Reference Kahn2013) and complexity that we are only just beginning to grasp. Perhaps we are arriving at a point in our cultural evolution where the predominance of ‘visual litany’ (Sterne Reference Sterne2003: 15) is being superseded by a more multimodal way of understanding the world and each other. However, as O’Callaghan (Reference O’Callaghan2017) points out, our understanding of auditory perception is lacking in comparison with visual perception, for example. We believe a discussion of the transference of sonic wisdom will assist in developing a truly multimodal understanding of knowledge and perception. Music possesses a wisdom that goes beyond simplistic notions of subjectivity and/or experience, and this is at the centre of Hope’s compositional attempts. What we notice in a turn to the sonic as the bearer of wisdom, a ‘turn’ that is occurring not just across music-specific disciplines but also with respect to our perception of the world more broadly (Nudds and O’Callaghan Reference Nudds and O’Callaghan2009; O’Callaghan Reference O’Callaghan2017;), is that compositions address select hierarchical challenges that musicians (and the broader community) encounter. Hope’s music attempts to address these challenges in a very direct way, challenging accepted wisdom, resulting in music reading being an activity that can become more broadly accessible. In this way, Hope’s compositional practice paves the way for the evolution of sonic wisdom beyond the dominant, pre-established siloes of Western classical music.