Scores

[Kalevala]

Was looking for a thread to ask this question, and this one has some gorgeous images in it, so I selected it, but when people look at scores - do you hear music? I ask this because I don't. Thanks.

I probably have around 70-80 scores I've picked up over the years but my favourites in my collection are Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre, Boulez's Derive II and Carter's Complete String Quartets

I can't read music, so I'm useless there!

Out of curiosity, do you buy them so as to learn from them as a composer...or?  As in say studying someones style and what they were doing musically--like in themes/motifs, how they transition from one movement to another (if there is more than one movement), etc.

K

[maticevska]

I can't read music, so I'm useless there!

Out of curiosity, do you buy them so as to learn from them as a composer...or?  As in say studying someones style and what they were doing musically--like in themes/motifs, how they transition from one movement to another (if there is more than one movement), etc.

K

I love reading the scores just to accompany listening to the music

[Kalevala]

I love reading the scores just to accompany listening to the music

O.k. 

K

[Philo]

I can't read music, so I'm useless there!

Out of curiosity, do you buy them so as to learn from them as a composer...or?  As in say studying someones style and what they were doing musically--like in themes/motifs, how they transition from one movement to another (if there is more than one movement), etc.

K

The scores I have gathered I originally intended to read them while listening to music, as I can both read music and play instruments (piano and trombone - not well anymore, but well enough when I was active), but I found that my mind, musically, can't even hear the music that I am playing - they are simply notes on a page that I then play on the instrument, but the note on the page has no sound for me at all - it is flat, so now I have them because I like looking at them, and I love seeing what the music actually looks like - it is very cool, and I am always blown away that some person was able to hear all of this and knew it would sound good - I don't think I will ever grasp that.

[amw]

I have historically had a bookshelf of scores but due to family moving around a great deal, the majority of them are currently in storage in New Zealand. It's about 30 boxes worth. As a substitute I have been downloading PDF scores to an iPad for a few years, including scanning in library scores that aren't public domain or can't be purchased digitally. The quality isn't the same, but a good deal of my physical score library started out as photocopies until I could afford to buy the music properly, so I'm fairly used to digital artifacts. I read them basically the same way others read books, for entertainment and education, sometimes also reading along while listening. However notated music is basically my first language with written English being my second one (spoken English is in third place probably)

[Kalevala]

I have historically had a bookshelf of scores but due to family moving around a great deal, the majority of them are currently in storage in New Zealand. It's about 30 boxes worth. As a substitute I have been downloading PDF scores to an iPad for a few years, including scanning in library scores that aren't public domain or can't be purchased digitally. The quality isn't the same, but a good deal of my physical score library started out as photocopies until I could afford to buy the music properly, so I'm fairly used to digital artifacts. I read them basically the same way others read books, for entertainment and education, sometimes also reading along while listening. However notated music is basically my first language with written English being my second one (spoken English is in third place probably)

Interesting! 

K

[Iota]

I have historically had a bookshelf of scores but due to family moving around a great deal, the majority of them are currently in storage in New Zealand. It's about 30 boxes worth. As a substitute I have been downloading PDF scores to an iPad for a few years, including scanning in library scores that aren't public domain or can't be purchased digitally. The quality isn't the same, but a good deal of my physical score library started out as photocopies until I could afford to buy the music properly, so I'm fairly used to digital artifacts. I read them basically the same way others read books, for entertainment and education, sometimes also reading along while listening. However notated music is basically my first language with written English being my second one (spoken English is in third place probably)

For some reason I found that a very striking statement indeed. Though I guess if you're a composer e.g, it's actually a very natural thing to say. I read music quite fluently but would never regard the notated version of it as being my first language.

[Cato]

Was looking for a thread to ask this question, and this one has some gorgeous images in it, so I selected it, but when people look at scores - do you hear music? I ask this because I don't. Thanks.

Oh yes! 

Of course, with orchestral scores it might take a while to construct the sounds mentally: it would depend on the work.

I have often told the story of when I was at the public library (in 1962 or '63) and read through the opening pages of a new score to the Seventh Symphony by Anton Bruckner, of whom I had never heard.  I became very enthusiastic, found a newly purchased DGG recording by Eugen Jochum in the Record section, and was thrilled.

In college, however, I came across the score to Messiaen's Chronochromie: let us say that my musical imagination generated only the roughest of impressions, although, after I finally discovered a recording, my impressions were close enough! 

I probably have around 70-80 scores I've picked up over the years but my favourites in my collection are Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre, Boulez's Derive II and Carter's Complete String Quartets.

Those are some great scores to have!