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Abstract
Developments in the early twentieth century relating to musical composition and performance, such as the introduction of extended vocal and instrumental techniques, the invention of electronic instruments and recording technologies, and the expanded use of alternative methods of combining instruments, all forced composers into new modes of organizing and communicating musical material. A few composers, as they attempted to manage an ever-broadening aural palette, developed a number of diverse notational strategies to control these new materials. Meanwhile, painter Wassily Kandinsky began using musical metaphors to describe the dynamic potential within the structure of and relationships between non-representational forms on the canvas. John Whitney, inspired both by Kandinsky's work and by that of early abstract filmmakers, pioneered the use of computer motion graphics to produce images that reflect musical harmonic motion.
Because my scores are built and exist in a motion graphics environment for the purpose of animating musical notation, both notational and movement issues come into play within this single art form. The elasticity of the motion graphics score makes it a powerful tool that can be used to solve some of the notational difficulties inherent in dealing with sounds of a complex and/or morphological nature. It can also provide alternative solutions to the notational challenges faced by composer in the middle of century, especially, the control of musical materials of an indeterminate nature, interaction with the score by the performer, and the coordination of independently moving musical events. Several motion graphics scores are presented here: Above Snakes, Crooked, The Way Through is Behind Us, Three Rooms, Elemental Canon, OneZero, and On. If the reader wishes to view these scores, they are located on a CD entitled The Motion Graphics Scores of Severin Behnen 2006-2008, stored in the Music Library, Schoenberg Hall, on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles.
