Pedersen, C., Vickery, L., and James, S. (2026). Comparing Text Score strategies for on-line music making (under review)
This paper investigates a range of approaches to using text scores in online and networked music performance, focusing on their alignment with strategies proposed by Wilson (2020) for aesthetic and technical approaches to networked music performance. Text scores, emerging from the Experimental music movement of the 1960s, communicate musical ideas through words rather than traditional notation, encompassing instructional, allusive, and hybrid forms. Although there are many aesthetic and pragmatic approaches to text score composition, the temporal openness of many works in the medium suggests a suitability for latency-challenged practice of telematic performance. The study evaluates four text scores— Craig Pedersen’s July 22, 2019 and 26 September 2023, Lindsay Vickery’s Salmon Hats (2024), and Stuart James’ Transformation in the Present (2025)—performed in a geographically distributed networked ensemble across Perth, Western Australia and Stanthorpe, Queensland, Australia. Analyses of recordings demonstrate that scores with open in- terpretative frameworks can accommodate network latency and telepresence challenges, while allusive scores are more sensitive to network instability but support collective interpretive interaction. The results suggest that text scores, whether instructional, allusive, or hybrid, can effectively support creative outcomes in networked contexts, particularly when they exploit openness, multi-interpretation, and digital mediation. These findings highlight the potential of text-based notation to enhance telematic collaboration and expand compositional strategies in contemporary experimental music.
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Vickery, L., Hope, C., Wyatt, A., and James, S. (2026). The Decibel Scoreplayer: An Overview of Expanding Capabilities (under review)
This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the evolution of the Decibel ScorePlayer software, a network- synchronised scrolling of proportional colour music scores and audio playback on multiple computers that was first conceptualised in 2010. The software is designed to coordinate the reading of scores, in particular graphic and non-standard notation in rehearsal and performance. It features scrolling and ‘tracking’ modes for reading, and can receive drawing commands for realtime score generation. The paper tracks the continual enhancement of performance-driven interoperability and networking beyond its function as a “score-reading” App, to allow for communication and synchronisation with external computers and other devices. These capabilities permit coordination between physically present and remote live performers, audio processing, spatial audio, video and physical devices.
The app ships with five scores by ensemble members Hope and Vickery and countdown clock function on both the Apple App and Google Play stores, and works with a companion ScoreCreator software available from the ensembles website. Conceptualised in Max, then realised in iOS for iPad, the software became truly platform agnostic in 2025. The ongoing development of the software has been driven by the composers and performers in the Decibel new music ensemble, an Australian new music group that performs music where acoustic and electronic sounds are combined. |
Vickery, L. (2026). An Exploration of Audio-Score Techniques and Practices (under review)
This paper discusses the emergence of the Audio Score as a distinct compositional practice in which auditory communication, rather than visual notation, is the primary medium through which compositional information is conveyed to performers. Drawing on recent theoretical formulations by Bhagwati, Sdraulig and Lortie, Schimana, and d’Heudières, the study situates Audio Scores within the evolution of technological, aesthetic, and ideological developments.
The discussion proposes a framework distinguishing three core roles of auditory material in Audio Scores— orientation, emulation, and instruction—and seeks to clarify the boundaries between Audio Scores and adjacent practices. The analysis foregrounds performer experience as a critical site of evidence through detailed case studies of works by d’Heudières, Schimana, and the author, all performed by the Australian ensemble GreyWing. |
