Talking Scores and the Dismediation of Music Notation

Abstract

In the 1990s, specialized libraries in the Netherlands developed an audio-based form of notation known as “talking scores” to be used as an assistive technology for blind and visually impaired musicians. A talking score, similar to the audiobooks on which it was based, narrates the information found in staff notation that would otherwise be accessed visually. The spoken instructions are divided into fragments and alternated with audio examples. This article discusses the working of such scores and analyzes the score for Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” to make detailed observations about the transformation from staff notation to talking score. This discussion is theoretically framed by a consideration of the “dismediation” of notation, i.e., of the centrality of questions of (dis)ability to discussions of the interactions between human bodies and media infrastructures, which forms the basis of a critique of Peter Szendy’s theory of musical arrangement.