Writing Music

The objective of the research project is to formulate a theory of music writing. Here, results of recent interdisciplinary research on writing will be considered and combined with a source-related examination of musical notation, in order to attain innovative questioning and approaches. Musical notations represent differentiated sign systems in the course of history, of that there is no doubt, but by no means is music writing limited to the mere referentiality of a pure system of communication. Aspects pertaining to the materiality of that which is notated, factors of the explorative and cognitive meaning of notating, and phenomena concerning the performativity written into the writing as well as the aisthetic dimension of musical notations in their visual presence constitute irreducible constitutive elements of an adequate concept of music writing. Accordingly, the proposed research project encompasses four research areas that focus on (previously neglected) key categories of a theory of music writing: materiality, operativity, iconicity, and performativity. The project thus tackles two highly topical desiderata of fundamental research in the humanities, art history, and cultural studies: On the one hand, it aims within the context of musicological theorization at engaging in a notational reflection that is essential for philological, analytical, theoretical, and historical research. On the other hand, it engages in the current discourse of writing as a transdisciplinary topic of research, making a previously lacking contribution to the development of a speech-independent (non-phonographic) concept of writing It goes without saying that an endeavor of this kind is conceivable today only as a collaborative effort. The cross-border cooperation between the four partners from Austria (Innsbruck and Vienna), Germany (Giessen), and Switzerland (Basel) enriches the project with various perspectives, research interests, and areas of expertise, thus providing the necessary broad theoretical perspective for formulating the basic theoretical framework.

The theme and goal of the Writing Music project was the formulation of a theory of musical writing. In doing so, the recent results of interdisciplinary research on writing were taken into account and combined with the source-based study of musical notations in order to arrive at innovative questions and approaches. There is no doubt that throughout history, musical notations represent differentiated sign systems, but by no means is musical writing exhausted in the mere visual representation of sound progressions. Aspects of the materiality of musical writing, moments of explorative and cognitive meaning of notation, phenomena of performativity inscribed in writing, as well as the perceptive dimension of musical notations in their visual presence represent important, constitutive aspects of an adequate concept of musical writing. Accordingly, four research areas were developed in the present research project, that bring central (thus far neglected) categories of a theory of musical writing into focus: Materiality, Operativity, Iconicity, and Performativity. Through the construction of these four thematic foci and their interconnection, it was possible to provide musical writing with a theoretical framework and also to establish precisely these perspectives in the field of musicological research as well. From the outset, we consciously considered the writing of dissertations as an integral part of the project work, expanding the traditional individual doctoral supervision to include collective supervision in the form of workshops, conferences, and networking among the dissertation candidates. The international project made it possible to assemble a research group of 12 scholars of different academic ages. A thematically relevant research group of this dimension can be considered exceptional for such a small discipline as musicology. The project achieved the formation of a network of (music) scholars researching musical writing through the organization of workshops with guests, the organization of conferences, the cooperation with other international research projects, the regular exchange with the members of the Advisory Board and other colleagues, who have thus become actual cooperation partners in the project, as well as through the publication series "Theory of Musical Writing". In this way, the project succeeded in establishing a discursive focus both in the field of musicology and beyond, as well as essentially closing the music-related gap in the interdisciplinary theory of writing.