Yale University Department of Music

Notation in New Music: A Critical Guide to Interpretation and Realization by Erhard

Karkoschka; Ruth Koenig
Review by: Thomas D. Dunn
Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Spring, 1973), pp. 168-171
Published by: Duke University Press on behalf of the Yale University Department of Music
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 1b8

NOTATION IN NEW MUSIC: A Critical Guide to Interpretation

and Realization
by Erhard Karkoschka. Translated from the German by Ruth
Koenig
NEW YORK: PRAGER, 1972. xii, 183p.

REVIEWER

Thomas D. Dunn

As can be surmised from the title, this book is a translation

of an earlier work, Das Schriftbild der Neuen Musik, originally
published by Moeck in 1966. An outline of this work may be
found in the review by Kurt Stone in PERSPECTIVES OF NEW
MUSIC (Spring-Summer, 1967), pp.146-154. For the conven-
ience of those readers who do not have easy access to Stone's
review, I shall also begin with an outline of the book's content.

The book is divided into three main parts:

I. Basics
II. Present Practice
III. Examples of Notation with Explanations

Part I contains a general discussion of the limitations of tra-

ditional notational systems in the face of demands and require -
ments of new music, and explores the principal needs of any
new systems based upon these demands. The second chapter
in this first part is more specific, discussing the growing ob-
solescence of the 12-tone equal tempered scale and the tradi-
tional notation of pitch which grew out of this scale system.
Two alternatives are explored in some detail: "Klavarscribo"
and "Equiton. "

The second part is divided into five chapters. Here, examples

of individual notational symbols, or, at most, small groups of
symbols are presented.

1. Exact Notation
Subdivisions: tempo, meter, duration, pitch, intensity,
articulation, new symbols for special effects and ac-
tions, grouping (of symbols), and score layout.

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 169
2. "Frame" Notation
3. "Indicative" Notation
4. Musical Graphics
5. Notation of Electronic Music

Chapters Two and three are subdivided in much the same way
as Chapter One. In each of these subdivisions, further group-
ings occur with respect to notation for specific instruments or
families of instruments. Essentially, Chapter Two comprises
notational symbols allowing the performer a limited freedom
of choice, while those of Chapter Three are more general, al-
lowing for a relatively wide latitude of decision. The final two
chapters are much shorter, scandalously so in Chapter Five.
To be sure, a truly substantial coverage of the electronic me-
dium would require discussion and illustration of various cir-
cuits and patchings, in addition to notational symbols describ-
ing the sound events, and some of these aspects might well lie
beyond the stipulated scope of the book. Yet to devote a single
page to a discussion of the problems and needs of notational
systems in this medium, and to append it (in the third part)
with a mere seven examples, all from a relatively early stage
in the development of electronic music, is rather disgraceful.
Surely additional entries could have been provided in the new
edition.

Part III places the hundreds of individual symbols presented in

Part II into a larger context via full-page excerpts from com-
plete scores. In addition to the seven examples taken from
scores for electronic realization, there are 76 examples from
vocal and instrumental works, allbut a very few being by mem-
bers of the European avant- garde of the 1950's and early 1960's.
As an appendage to the discussion of traditional stave notation
in Part I, six other examples are presented, notated simul-
taneously in the traditional manner and either Equiton or Klav-
arscribo.

As with any translation or new edition, it is nice to let the

reader know what has been altered with respect to the original.
Unfortunately, this is not always the case here. In lieu of
anything that could be called an index, page 21 of the original
edition had a matrix-like table referring numerically to each
of the smallest subdivisions of Part II. Thus, individual sym-
bols for, say, articulation in exact notation for wind instruments
could be found under bold-face number 45 (each example also
has? its own light-face number). In addition, the original edi-
tion had three large, foldout tables contained in a pocket in the
back flap, which, using the bold-face numbering system, cited

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170

symbols especially recommended by the author. These fold-

outs and the table on page 21 have all been jettisoned in the
translated version with no reason given for the omission.

The translation itself leaves a certain amount to be desired.

Even the title could have been rendered better - possibly as
"The Appearance of the New Music" (Schriftbild and Notation,
I feel, have slightly differing connotations). Although one senses
attempts by Ms. Koenig to prune away some of the excess lush-
ness, not to say density, of Herr Karkoschka's style, she is not
always successful, and in fact the issue is sometimes clouded
even more.

Thus a passage such as:

Vor allem wegen der genauen Bestimmbarkeit von Fre-

quenzen, Tondauern und Tonstarken in elektronischer Mu-
sik, wegen der Moglichkeit, die Klangfarbe zu kompon-
ieren und kontinuierlich zu tindern, und wegen einer Anzahl
neuartiger Manipulationen haben die Komponisten elek-
tronischer Musik neue Wege ihrer Fixierung finden mtssen;
denn die traditionelle Notenschrift kann die Mglichkeiten
der Gestaltung des Materials nicht festhalten. (German
ed., p. 83)

Becomes rather awkwardly simplified as:

In electronic music, frequency, duration, and intensity

can be fixed exactly; timbre can be decided upon and con-
tinuously changed, and furthermore many new kinds of
technique are possible. Composers have therefore had to
find new ways of writing it down. Traditional notation
cannotexpress how material can be synthesised. (English
ed., p. 81)

Too frequently the telescoping of what are multiple sentences

in the original into one in the translation gets too wide of the
mark, as when:

Dies muss jeden Interpreten abschrecken und belasten.

Es gilt, eine verntinftige L~8sung zu finden. (p. 28)

Becomes:

This is a handicap and a burden to any interpreter, when

we are looking for a sensible solution. (p. 26) ("Absch-
recken" connotes being scared off, not "handicap")

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 171

Picky as such citations may be, one runs up against these ex-
cessive paraphrasings and awkwardnesses much too frequently.

Far more serious, however, are the oversights in translation

with regard to the musical material itself. Why, for instance,
was there no attempt made to translate the German terms for
sharpened notes into English terminology in Figures la and 2a
on p. 11 ? I assume the translation was for those people who
could not read German, thus why not go all the way? The same
could be said for symbol # 61 on p.28. The explanation has
been translated, but not the word Lautstarke within the symbol
itself. Finally, the most glaring problems are in the large
excerpted examples in Part III. Here, numerous pages have
been reproduced in a manner rendering it almost impossible
to decipher the usually handwritten performance instructions
accompanying the musical notation. In some cases, as in Ex-
ample B 17 on p. 99 (the Cadenza, Op. 23 by Hans-Ulrich En-
gelmann), Karkoschka's commentary seems to have taken it
for granted that the reader has already read and understood
the tiny - and untranslated - instructions in the score. In many
of these examples it would have been far more helpful to have
provided translations of the composer's instructions as well
as Karkoschka's commentaries.

Obviously a great amount of thoughtful work has gone into this

book, and, notwithstanding a few carping comments such as
those above, it should prove useful. Yet the most damaging
critical point cannot be overlooked - obsolescence. By and
large, Karkoschka's book presents a broad spectrum of approx-
imately fifteenyears of the European avant-garde, the medium
of which was still pretty much grounded in traditional instru-
ments and, yes, even vocal styles (I did not find any mention
of singing through gas masks filled with helium). A glance
through the various issues of SOURCE, such books as David
Cope's New Directions in Music (W. Brown, 1971) or Eric
Salzman's survey of new music in the Prentice-Hall series,
or simply considering the type of notation that must go into the
music of a Harry Partch or Steve Reich, not to mention the
totally new requirements of multi-media productions, all tends
to place Karkoschka's work into a rather humbling light; hum-
bling that is, in the sense that it is not the all-inclusive survey
of contemporary symbolism for sonic ideas. Used along with
such works as SOURCE and the Notations of John Cage, Nota-
tion in New Music, or possibly better: The Appearance of the
New Music is still a valuable volume.

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