Multisensory Graphic Scores

Working with both deaf and hearing musicians, I have been exploring multisensory techniques for about 15 years, including the use of vibrotactile speakers, visual speakers (with materials pulsating in the cones), smoke ring cannons, Irish Sign Language, and extended techniques by musicians involving scored movement. However, musically notating these new approaches has always been an issue. Conventional music notation, created principally to provide instructions for sound generation, doesn’t afford much scope for scoring visual and vibrotactile phenomena, not to mention bodily movement. I therefore have simply adapted conventional notation to approximate whatever I want to achieve.

Luckily, in July, 2024, I was awarded a Music Bursary to investigate the use of graphic scores for multisensory compositions. This has allowed me to develop 3 multisensory studies which make new and exciting approaches to graphic notation.

I’ve been working in Boff’s Hut (my home studio), the Contemporary Music Centre and Dundalk Gaol to workshop these approaches, both on my own own on trumpet & trombone, as well as with saxophonist Robert Finnigan.

I will shortly be posting footage of these workshops as well as publishing the full scores for Multisensory Studies no. 1 - 3 through the Contemporary Music Centre.