Verbal notation has emerged since the 1950s as a prominent medium in the field of experimental music, as well as in related ares of arts practice involving performance and object making. Works created with this type of notation are often referred to by their authors as event scores. Accessible to a wide range of people, including those unfamiliar with traditional Western music notation, such works use the written word to instruct, describe, perplex, confound and inspire. Word Events features over 170 scores, many printed here for the first time, representing the works of more than 50 practitioners, including such seminal figures as George Brecht, John Cage, Yoko Ono etc. This book examines the use of English grammar in verbal notation, with numerous examples of usage from specific verbal scores. Commentaries explore the compositional strategies and performance practice of particular works, and this discussion is contextualised by key essays, including previously hard-to-find texts by Lawrence Halprin and Kenneth Maue, together with many new statements and interviews from composers, artists and performers. This unique and wide-ranging collection of scores and writings will be indispensable to musicians, artists, those involved with community arts, and anyone with an interest in exploring the rich potential of the written word.
