Graphic score

Graphic scores are a form of music notation that invites experimentation and collaboration. Rather than following instructions when playing a composition of music, performaers participate as its co-creators. Liberation and freedom are central themes in the history of graphic scores, whose emergence since the 1950s also coincided with the Southern African independence era.

The Echoes of southern African liberation struggles graphic score draws inspiration from this history and adds another layer of research and interpretatin onto the mixtapes that were developed during the collaborative research project on echoes of the southern African independence era in Swiss jouranlism archives.

We present the graphic score in the form of a DIY kit that is easy to use: performers, or even audience members, can add stickers representing the musical parametres of melody, rhythm and texture onto seven circular forms printed on a poster. The stickers signal instructions for change. An accompanying performance guide explains the collaborative composition and performance process in detail.