Red WharfArtwork

Mel

 

The visual aspect also plays a part in his scores. The scores for many of the compositions have traditional notation, be they study scores for some of the tape pieces or as the usual player's instructions for the instrumental works. But most have graphic elements to a greater or lesser extent.

The instrumental piece Beach incorporates graphic notation as part of a more standard score. Olitsky, on the other hand, uses (near) traditional notation presented as an artwork. Four circular moveable acetate sheets hold the notes over a circular staff system – an approximate answer to the problem of notating the constantly phasing layers of the work.

The scores for some of the artist related pieces use photocopies of the artworks portrayed in the pieces. For Riley the paintings are simply presented in a row to show the inspiration for each musical change throughout the work. For the pieces Rauschenberg and Surface Quartet the artworks were, in part, more directly translated into sound. In Rauschenberg the photocopies are divided into four horizontal sections to show the source visual references for each of the four tracks of the tape. The score for Surface Quartet has the look of a more conventional graphic score but with descriptive images throughout. Based on a Rauschenberg silk-screen set, a reduced photocopy of each of the
artwork's 36 panels is depicted above the 'staves' in each of the 36 sections.

The piece Tinguely is inspired by and uses sounds from a large sound-sculpture by Jean Tinguely. The score uses painting, collage and inks upon the background of a photograph of the structure.

For Primarily Henry there is a graphic illustration created from the arrange page of the sequencer program used to produce the piece.

The score for Greetings from in front of a TV set II is a collage with graphics created from a colour-staggered photograph of a TV magazine advertisement.

The Hidden States score is an artwork using watercolour, collage and graphics, within which is a more traditional graphic score format. The staves for each of the sixteen tracks incorporate descriptive images for the sounds represented.

Nearly all of these graphic scores are descriptive, although for most of his works the compositional process starts with a visual image, real or imagined. Although new versions of the pieces could be realized from these scores, the intention was more to capture visually the sound of the music.

Mel  

 

Graphic Scores

GTV

Greetings from in front of a TV set ii

The musical composition 'Horizontal Hold (Muzak)' - (1984) - is featured on the album 'Television and the bomb" (RW-1-03-005), track 3.The graphic score consists of 6 pages - The first page is the artwork for the score cover, the second the title, and pages 3, 4, 5 and 6 the actual score.

Click on the image for an enlarged view


Score Cover
 
         
Score Title
 
         
Score Page 3
Score Page 4
Score Page 5
Score Page 6
 

 

Graphic Scores

Tinguely

The musical composition 'Tinguely'- (1984) - is featured on the album 'Washing Fluid Art" (RW-1-03-006), track 3.
The graphic score consists of 4 pages - The first page is the artwork for the score cover, the second and third the titles, and the fourth the actual score.
Based on the sculpture “Méta-Harmonie II” (1979) by Jean Tinguely.

Click on the image for an enlarged view


 

Score Cover

   
         
 

Score Title

Score Title

   
         
 

Score

   
         

 

Graphic Scores

Hidden States

The musical composition 'Hidden States' - (1986) - is featured on the album 'Television and the bomb" (RW-1-03-005), track 7.
The graphic score consists of 11 pages - The first page is the artwork for the score cover, the second the title, and pages 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9 the actual score

Click on the image for an enlarged view


 

 

Score Cover      
           
Score Title

Score Page 2

Score Page 3 Score Page 4  
           
           

Score Page 5

Score Page 6

Score Page 7

Score Page 8

Score Page 9

 

 

Select the Links below to view details of Mel and his work