Unheeded Melodies
2021
Project exists in a form of a book-object
Design: Ekaterina Antonova
One of the earliest graphic ways of recording musical works was the neume system used in medieval music. The altitude designation of sounds in the neumes system was practically absent, and the direction of the melody was indicated to the performers using specially established signs - neumes, which were dots, hooks, and strokes. Gradually, musical notation became more complicated, and the signs became more accurate in transmitting the pitch and duration of the sounds. Since the XVII century, a five-line clock notation has been used - a classic type of West European linear notation, the most common today.
With the invention of computer technology, music has changed, and digital symbol systems come in place of the musical notation type. In parallel with this, signs that did not imply a direct reading began to appear in the sheet music scores of modern academic music. The result of interpreting these signs by, the performer approached free improvisation. Many composers perform musical notation in musical graphics, similar to drawings.
I refer to the space of everyday life as a place for the appearance of such graphics. Fragments of the surrounding reality turn into simulations of musical scores, phonorecords, into the likeness of a digital code. They become akin to a photographic negative, the image of which can be expressed by the performer.
But this never happens in graphic fragments of reality—spontaneous notations are not intended for sound. They appear randomly and disappear, unheeded.