Midpoint Notation: An experimental music notation system at the intersection of graphic notation and conventional Western notation

Abstract

The history of conventional Western musical notation (CWN) is littered with proposals for ways to either radically improve or replace its longstanding system of staff-based notation. Yet, despite wide consensus that CWN is flawed, none of these alternative systems have caught on with any level of mainstream popularity. In the absence of a direct alternative, a separate but related graphic notation (GN) paradigm emerged among the avant-garde composers of the mid-20th century as a means of notating that which the dominant CWN paradigm could not allow. GN, though expansive in its allowances both creatively and visually, potentially presents its own set of problems: by its very design it lacks the systematization of CWN and accordingly often lends itself only to highly subjective readings. This thesis seeks to explore through creative scholarship and the application of graphic design insights the ways in which advantages of CWN and GN might be meaningfully reconciled with each other. In recognition of both the difficulties inherent in combining these contradictory paradigms and the impossibility of attempting to exhaustively fix either’s flaws, this research instead seeks to locate a possible middle ground between the two in terms of form and function as informed by the author’s own creative interests. The resultant product, Midpoint Notation, constitutes the initial explorations into one such potential alternative system that enables a new systematic, yet still conceptually open-ended, means of composition. A handbook detailing how to use Midpoint Notation is included.