Breaking Barlines

Innovating the Language of Music

By Asmaa Abdallah

For most, a musical score suggests five-line staves with clefs and time signatures, accidentals and notes: a series of symbols and markings that inform musicians which notes to play and hint at dynamics or timbre. Look through the repertoire of Johnny Gandelsman’s anthology This is America and you will find a different story.

When the Grammy-winning violinist set out to create a body of work that reflects the rich and diverse culture of America in response to the turbulent year of 2020, the musical scores he received were as diverse as the project’s 20-something composers. Some were quite surprising. “One of the things about commissioning new music is that you don’t necessarily know what you’re going to get,” says Johnny.

Take Matana Roberts’ Stitched. With Matana being a visual artist as well as a composer, an element of visual representation was perhaps to be expected. Instead, Johnny was introduced to “endless scores,” a mixed media framework based on a key physiological phenomenon, the “after-image.” Here Johnny looks at a figure of words divided into four sections: Image, Feeling, Action and Direction, then chooses based on the idea of an additional image that continues to appear in his eye, after a period of exposure to an original image. Accompanying the screen of words is the Matrix, which Johnny describes as offering a flexible container for interpretation. Even the instrumentation is optional. Given this flexibility, Johnny has performed the piece with Dartmouth alum Kojiro Uzemaki ’93 on shakuhachi at his Hop winter concert.

Tardigrades, by composer Nick Dunston, on the other hand, was written specifically for the violin. The piece pays special attention to the instrument’s unconventional parts with some notes calling for pulling the bow without touching any of the strings while tapping the body of the violin in rhythm. Rather than read from left to right as a conventional score would, it follows from box to box. Apart from a few decipherable symbols, the “strange language of the score” (as described by the composer) had to be interpreted by a mutual friend.

Another piece borrows its cues from a radical new language of movement: Gaga. Maya Miro Johnson’s Dance Suite invites the instrumentalist to transpose choreographic prompts into sound. Created by Israeli dancer and choreographer Ohad Naharin, Gaga is “a dance form, a language, a philosophy, a spiritual practice that prioritizes the autonomy of the mover,” or in this case the musician. Movement IV begins with interplay between the violin and the composer’s voice— “Feel a quake beginning in the center of your abdomen. You didn’t put it there, it just began on its own.” Gaga invites artists to develop their own unique pathway, which is how Johnny interpreted and performed the piece.

Through Gandelsman’s adventurous project, we see the format of musical notations undergo twists and turns, propelled by interdisciplinary influence and desire for unfettered artistic expression. These innovations are reshaping how we create, perform and experience music. This evolving landscape promises to unlock new realms of creativity and redefine the boundaries of musical artistry.