Three Pages from the Score of "The Benevolent Engine Accord" for Solo Viola

Three pages from the score of "The Benevolent Engine Accord" for Solo Viola

Bil Smith Composer

2025

 

Redefining Composition and the ART Score: Dynamic Integration of Art Aesthetics from Locher to Ploeger

 

Redefining the Score: Dynamic Integration of Art Aesthetics from Locher to Ploeger

One of the most striking developments in the interpretation of the contemporary music score is the integration of visual art aesthetics into compositional frameworks.  My approach goes beyond traditional music notation to incorporate the conceptual and aesthetic methodologies of influential visual artists, such as Thomas Locher, Barbara Kruger, Ed Ruscha, and Wolfgang Ploeger.

By drawing from the fragmented language of Locher, the provocative visual statements of Kruger, the conceptual wordplay of Ruscha, and the geometric abstraction of Ploeger, I redefine the score as an interactive, multifaceted system. The fusion of these diverse art forms creates a paradigm shift, one that transcends auditory expression to become a conceptual experience.

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The Evolution of the Score in Contemporary Music

Traditional vs. Experimental Music Scores

In traditional Western music, the score serves as a precise guide for performers to follow, encoding specific instructions regarding pitch, rhythm, and expression. The clarity and specificity of standard notation allow for consistent execution across different performers and ensembles. However, the rigidity of this system becomes an obstacle to expressing the complexity of modern ideas.

My work represents a shift away from conventional notation, embracing instead graphic scores, symbolic representations, and abstracted notational systems. This new approach is heavily influenced by visual arts that use open-ended structures, ambiguity, and multiplicity of meaning, offering a fresh perspective on how music can be represented and experienced.

Art and Music as Interactive Disciplines

The boundaries between art forms are increasingly fluid, especially in the digital age. The integration of visual arts with sound is not new, but artists like Locher, Kruger, Ruscha, and Ploeger have brought new dimensions to this relationship. These artists use abstract imagery, textual manipulation, and conceptual forms to challenge perception and convey meaning. My scores, in turn, mirror this tendency, offering performers multiple layers of meaning, much as a visual artist might present a piece that requires the viewer to actively engage with the work to fully understand its depth.

My Approach

My compositional approach blends visual art aesthetics with the principles of sound morphology, creating scores that are conceptually rich and open to interpretation. My work incorporates elements such as:

• Non-linear Structure: Much like modern visual art, this notation do not follow a linear, traditional progression. Instead, they offer fragmented or overlapping notations that reflect the complexity of human experience and perception.
• Graphic and Abstract Notation: Inspired by artists like Locher and Ploeger, I use visual symbols, geometric forms, and graphic cues to represent musical elements, allowing performers to experience the score as both a visual and aural representation of sound.
• Dynamic Interaction: Just as visual art often involves a dynamic interaction between the viewer and the piece, the scores demand that performers actively engage with the material, interpreting both the visual and musical aspects of the composition.

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Art Aesthetic Integration in Bil Smith’s Compositional Framework

Thomas Locher: Fragmentation and Symbolic Language

Thomas Locher is known for his exploration of semiotics and the fragmentation of language in his artwork. Locher’s abstract symbols and disruptive text systems challenge the viewer to reconsider how meaning is constructed and interpreted. This conceptual approach directly influences my compositional structures, where abstract symbols serve as a point of departure for sonic exploration.

In Locher’s art, disjointed elements and non-linear text force the viewer to engage with the piece in a non-traditional way. Similarly, my graphic scores often present overlapping, fragmented sections that require performers to decipher the structure and meaning of the piece, blurring the lines between visual aesthetics and musical execution.

Barbara Kruger: Provocative Text and Visual Directives

Barbara Kruger’s conceptual art relies heavily on text-based visuals that challenge authority, identity, and social norms. Kruger’s iconic works like “Your Body Is a Battleground” use bold typography and stark imagery to make provocative statements, inviting viewers to reconsider their perspectives on power and control.

I embrace the use of bold graphical elements and strong visual contrasts mirrors Kruger’s approach. For example, a score might include large, dominant symbols or contradictory visual cues that force performers to interpret the meaning behind the image, akin to how Kruger’s art forces the viewer to decode the underlying message. This method encourages an engagement with both the visual and the conceptual, giving musical instruction through a visually evocative framework.

Ed Ruscha: Wordplay and Conceptual Narratives

Ed Ruscha’s work often focuses on textual exploration and wordplay, where the graphic treatment of words creates a new visual language. Ruscha’s use of language is often ironic or conceptual, pushing the boundaries of literal meaning and cultural signifiers. This playfulness and non-literal approach to language is something that deeply resonates with my compositions, where words and symbols are used not just to represent sound, but also to express broader concepts.

We see similar wordplay and conceptual language that invites reinterpretation. For instance, I might use symbols that represent non-musical elements such as time, space, or emotion, allowing performers to explore these ideas through musical and physical gestures.

Wolfgang Ploeger: Geometric Abstraction and Digital Art

Wolfgang Ploeger’s work is renowned for its geometric abstraction and integration of digital elements. His visual works often rely on precise, abstract forms that evoke movement, space, and light. Similarly, My scores utilize geometric shapes and digital forms to represent musical textures and spatial dynamics.

Ploeger’s use of digital media and interactivity in art inspires one to think about how graphic scores can integrate modern technology. Just as Ploeger’s art can be experienced digitally, my scores may involve dynamic, interactive components that can evolve based on performer interpretation or audience interaction, challenging the performer to engage in a multisensory experience.

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The Future of Graphic Scores and the Influence of Art Aesthetics

Expanding the Concept of the Score

As technology evolves, the relationship between visual art and music will continue to blur. I believe that, by 2030, we will see immersive environments where graphic scores are integrated into digital landscapes, allowing for more interactive and adaptive compositions.

Performers will no longer simply read scores; they will interact with visual cues that are constantly shifting and changing, much like an evolving piece of art.

The Role of Performance in Art-Music Integration

Future performances may involve live visual art creation, where artists like Locher, Kruger, Ruscha, and Ploeger influence the performance itself. By using visual stimuli to guide musical decisions, performers will have the opportunity to bring both visual art and music into a unified experience, making the boundary between disciplines even more fluid.

By drawing from the works of Locher, Kruger, Ruscha, and Ploeger, I challenge the traditional structure of the score, turning it into a conceptual, multisensory experience.

"The Hermeneutics of Suspicion in the Time-Traveling Cowboy's Adventures" For Cello

In this new composition "The Hermeneutics of Suspicion in the Time-Traveling Cowboy's Adventures" for Cello delivers a complex notational vocabulary incorporating extreme extended techniques in which the cellist encounters rhythmic indentations and protrusions; a delicate topography of peaks and valleys in the score.

The composition is focused on the concept of a new space… on the grounds that it was too closely bound up with subjective gesture, but much more flexible about the notational intervals at which they appeared of which arranged diagonal vectors form corridors of open space which alternately narrow and widen across the score.

In a way, the composition attacks the supports and surfaces, the very structure of what this score is, and in that way we feel these sounds as if were feeling these textures in our own body.’ The cellists' compositional expression and the idea of how to frame that expression become inseparable; or, to borrow an idea from the theater, the proscenium is designed together with the action onstage. This work represents a very physical form of creative destruction: to go through it and transform it.

One of the themes I explored in this work focused on my interest in the ways in which power operates in society. I envision the cellist arguing that power is not just something that is possessed by individuals or groups, but is rather something that is diffuse and pervasive, operating through a complex web of social relations. The intricacies of the tablature express my belief that knowledge is always produced within a specific historical and cultural context, and that it is therefore always contingent and subject to change.

I am also interested in the ways in which this notation functions as a system of signs that produces meaning. This notation is not just a stylistic choice, but is rather a way of engaging with their ideas about power and knowledge. It is a composition that embodies the radical potential of creative destruction. It is a work that attacks the very foundations of traditional musical notation and reconfigures them into a new kind of space that is both unsettling and exhilarating.

It is a work that demands not just technical virtuosity of the performer, but also a willingness to engage with the political and philosophical implications of its form and the idea of the "destructive character" - a figure who seeks to go beyond the limitations of existing forms and create something new. The use of the cello as the solo instrument creates a sense of intimacy and immediacy that is difficult to reproduce; it creates a sense of disorientation and uncertainty which embodies a sense of skepticism and distrust of established power structures.

"Aetherial Soul" for Piano.

 

"The Paranormal Detective Agency's Guide To Modern Physics" for Viola

 

"The Paranormal Detective Agency's Guide To Modern Physics" embodies a plethora of complex musical concepts and intricate notational structures. My goal for this work, composed for the viola, is to exude a sense of otherworldly energy and a heightened sense of mystery that is both awe-inspiring and eerie.

The composition employs a highly developed notational palette that incorporates fissures, fragmentation, and semicollapsed geometric transformations, which pivot and rotate. The visual landscape of the score is both complex and multifaceted, with each element interacting in a unique and intricate manner, creating a complex and layered soundscape that is both immersive and mesmerizing.

The score is in the midst of a metamorphosis, caught in the process of becoming something else. The composer's vision is to create a piece that defies conventional music theory and notation, incorporating a multitude of unique concepts and techniques that push the boundaries notation.

As a composer, I define myself as someone in total opposition. I believe that resistance is autonomy, and that it is the raison d'etre for my existence as a composer. It is fundamental to my work and is the driving force behind my compositional endeavors.

The use of fissures and fragmentation in the score creates a sense of fragmentation and disorientation, with the performer jumping from one section of the score to another, creating a sense of chaos and disorder. The semicollapsed geometric transformations add another layer of complexity, with the notes and symbols appearing to pivot and rotate around each other in a dizzying display.

Despite its complexity, the piece is incredibly engaging and captivating, albeit it is also an extreme extension of systemization and depersonalization incorporating a range of techniques and elements that create a sense of dematerialization, a seductive effacing of architectural boundaries, and of the surfaces rendered so emphatically present that defines the viola in an abstract, extreme persona.

The discreet allusiveness gives way to the linear evocations of perspectival recession, generating the feeling of an empty space mirroring itself to infinity.

"Xontic Arroyo (Absentia Portrait)" for Trombone, Cello and Piano. Bil Smith Composer

"Xontic Arroyo (Absentia Portrait)"

for Trombone, Cello and Piano.  

Bil Smith Composer

Link to Full Score (PDF)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wjvY86hdHKDxwxRyMCAsKh4WmPkQhT4F/view?usp=sharing

In contemplating the notational lexicon found within the score of "Xontic Arroyo (Absentia Portrait)" for Trombone, Cello, and Piano, I introduce a certain defiance of traditional figuration, offering a case study in the ethical and philosophical dimensions of musical notation

The decision to eschew immediately legible figuration in favor of a more complex, compound notational lexicon is not merely an aesthetic choice but a principled stance against what I deem to be an inherently regressive adherence to traditional notation systems. Such systems carry a reactionary gravity from which no subject—no matter how ostensibly critical or subversive—can truly escape.

"Xontic Arroyo" thus serves as both a record and a provocateur, engaging in an emerging discourse that seeks to illuminate and challenge the contextual changes, challenges, and possibilities that the discipline of music, and perhaps society more broadly, has thus far preferred to ignore.

The composition invites the performers to consider the notational system not as a neutral tool but as a locus of power, one that shapes the creation, interpretation, and experience of the work.

The composition's challenge to the performers underscores the importance of disciplinary awareness and reflexivity.

 

These Scores Do Not Ask to be Played. They Ask to be Reckoned With.

 

Mental Mechanics: The Performer as Disrupted Executor

My notational strategy—placing signs within, under, next to, and inside one another—functions as a dysfunctional transmission. What results is a kind of mechanical metaphor for the failure of seamless communication. The performer is rendered a subjective engine, working through layers of visual obfuscation, symbolic misdirection, and embodied presence.

This disjunction is key: The scores operate on a logic of material compatibility, not performative comfort. The signs, images, textures, and figures  used are relationally coherent within the architecture of the score itself—but may resist translation into performative gesture. This is a radical proposition: that the score-machine exists not to be executed, but to be inhabited, like one of Roussel’s linguistic devices or Picabia’s eroticized camshafts.

From Notation to Imagination Machine

In this framework, the score becomes a new kind of imagination machine, one in which the laws of musical grammar have been bent to accommodate psychological interference, bodily proximity, and material seduction. This is not notation for performance—it is notation as experience, notation as artifact, notation as site of metaphysical experimentation.

Much like Duchamp’s bachelor machine, the scores embody a tension between desire and delay, between symbolic motion and erotic failure. They perform not just as texts to be read or sounds to be made, but as complexes of action, image, and concept. The machine no longer produces—it suggests, interrupts, withholds.

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Toward a New Poetics of Notation

In this work, we see a revival—not of function—but of metaphysical invention. The score becomes not a vessel but a mechanism of contradiction. A chamber of relations. A surface of layered symbolic interference. Like Roussel’s instruments, it is full of language disguised as device; like Duchamp’s glass, it is full of ghosted motion and deferred consummation. And like Picabia’s drawings, it is irreverent, recursive, and iconoclastic.

These scores do not ask to be played. They ask to be reckoned with. To be understood not through the hands, but through the eyes, the skin, the resistance of thought to sound. In this, they are notational descendants of a long lineage of impossible machines—machines that seduce not with their efficiency, but with their refusal to function on anyone’s terms but their own.

Broke and Broken Cogito

 

Broke and Broken Cogito

2024

40” X 30”; 101.6 X 76.2 cm

Ink, Graphite Pen, Charcoal, Ash, Color Ink on C-Print

Edition of 5 with 2 APs

Equative Tablature

 

The Confluence of Radical Innovation and Artistic Aesthetics: How the AACM, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, and Visionary Artists Shape My Compositional Futurisms

 

The Confluence of Radical Innovation and Artistic Aesthetics: How the AACM, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, and Visionary Artists Shape My Compositional Futurisms

By Bil Smith

Throughout my career as a composer, I have continuously sought to break free from the traditional confines of classical music. In my explorations, I have found myself deeply influenced by the radical innovation of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and the pioneering performances of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Their dynamism, characterized by unrestricted improvisation and artistic freedom, has fundamentally reshaped how 

I think about composition and performance. This influence is not just limited to the music itself; it extends into the visual aesthetics of artists such as Tacita Dean and Hanne Darboven, whose conceptual art and systems-based structures have inspired new ways of conceptualizing a musical score as an immersive, performative event.

The AACM and The Art Ensemble of Chicago: A Legacy of Radical Innovation

The AACM and the Art Ensemble of Chicago have long been at the forefront of avant-garde music. Emerging in the 1960s, the AACM’s mission was not just to innovate through free jazz but to create an entirely new musical language—one that was dynamic, unpredictable, and, above all, freedom-driven. The Art Ensemble of Chicago, as one of the most celebrated ensembles within this tradition, took these ideals to new heights. Their performances were characterized by fluidity, spontaneity, and an embrace of improvisation that blurred the lines between composition and performance.

This approach directly challenged traditional Western music, which typically adhered to fixed structures and predictable paths. Instead, the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s performances were more akin to living organisms, constantly evolving in real-time. The dynamic nature of their music opened up new possibilities for musical expression, where individual voices were allowed to blend, contradict, and reconfigure into ever-changing soundscapes.

The Influence of Tacita Dean and Hanne Darboven: Time, Structure, and Visual Aesthetics

While the AACM and Art Ensemble of Chicago expanded the possibilities of sound, the work of artists like Tacita Dean and Hanne Darboven has greatly influenced my approach to the visual and structural elements of my compositions. Their conceptual art practices—rooted in time-based narratives, systems thinking, and visual abstraction—have prompted me to reconsider how musical time and visual space can intersect.

Tacita Dean’s films, particularly her explorations of analog film, time, and the ephemeral nature of the medium, have had a profound impact on my conception of how time can be manipulated in a musical context. Dean’s use of film as a time-based medium reflects an understanding of time not as a linear progression but as something more fluid and perceptual. Similarly, I began to explore ways in which the time of the performance could be represented visually, rather than as a sequence of notes tied to a traditional timeline.

In my future works, I envision scores that evolve in real-time, where visual elements such as film projections or interactive displays dictate the tempo, dynamics, and phrasing of the music. The score itself would become a collaborative partner in the performance, where the visualizations of the score—whether through projected film clips, abstract shapes, or dynamic patterns—would serve as a guide to the performer, directing and interacting with their musical interpretation.

Hanne Darboven’s numerical systems and grid-based compositions also provided fertile ground for my exploration of how structured visualizations can influence the performance of a piece. Darboven’s work is meticulous in its use of repetition and counting systems, creating a visual and conceptual framework that governs how the work is perceived over time. This approach inspired me to incorporate systematic structures into my compositions, where the score itself becomes not just a collection of notes but a system of organizing sound.

In the future, I see musical scores transforming into visual documents that integrate both musical notation and abstract representations. These representations could be in the form of graphs, mathematical symbols, or geometric grids that guide the performer’s movements in time and space. The performer would be asked not only to interpret the music but to interact with the visual systems that accompany it, creating a dynamic performance that is both musically and visually innovative.

Hypothetical Scenarios for the Future Score as a Performative Event

The confluence of the AACM’s improvisational heights, the time-based aesthetics of Tacita Dean, and the structural experimentation of Hanne Darboven opens the door to a new kind of musical performance—one where the score becomes a living entity, no longer bound to the page, but instead emerging and transforming during the performance.

Scenario 1: The Score as a Time-Based Visual Map

In this scenario, the score would no longer be a series of static symbols on a page but instead an interactive visual map that evolves throughout the performance. The musicians would follow the score, which is displayed as a dynamic projection in real time. This projection could include film fragments from Tacita Dean’s works, which represent moments of time that correspond to different sections of the composition.

As the musicians play, the visuals would change in response to their movements and musical choices, creating a synesthetic experience where the sound and visual elements are inseparable. The improvisatory nature of the AACM would shine through as musicians use the changing visual cues to navigate the piece. In this future score, the boundaries between composer, performer, and audience would become blurred, as all participants are invited into an experiential exchange where time, sound, and vision are constantly reshaped.

Scenario 2: The Systematic Score as Spatial Structure

Taking inspiration from Hanne Darboven’s use of counting systems and geometric patterns, imagine a future scenario in which the musical score is constructed as a spatial structure in the performance space. Walls of sound, represented by physical grids or projected patterns, would surround the performers, dictating their movements and interaction. The musicians would not simply read a static score but would be guided by visual cues that represent the temporal flow of the composition.

For instance, the performers might see abstract geometric shapes shift in real time, pushing them to adapt their playing in response to the changing visual landscape. The interaction between sound, space, and motion would turn the performance into a living organism, where both the music and its visual representation are constantly in flux..

A New Era of Performative Scores

The future of music, as I see it, is not one confined to traditional notation but one that embraces a multi-sensory, performative score—one that is dictated not only by sound but by the visualizations that accompany it. Inspired by the radical innovations of the AACM, the artistic exploration of Tacita Dean, and the structural systems of Hanne Darboven, I believe the musical score can evolve into a performative event that bridges the gap between music and visual art, composition and improvisation.

As this new era unfolds, the score will no longer just be a static blueprint for sound but a living document that interacts with the performers and audience, creating a shared, evolving experience. The possibilities are limitless, and I am excited to continue pushing the boundaries of how music is not only composed but experienced in this exciting future.