What is an "ART SCORE" ? Christopher Lantz is one of the few remaining avant-garde composers who experimented in the early 70's with re-presenting notational musical form,which he coined: "art scores." In their birth, these musical scores were not originally intended as "art." The composer was instead seeking freedom from the constraints of traditional notation. Was it possible to escape the linear bindings? How could he communicate to a musician the virtual improvisational freedom that could be gleaned in the subtleties of space, colors, and forms?

The answer was, of course, to use these visual elements to communicate a notation that was far too complex, and far too multi-dimensional, to be written traditionally. By initially using traditional notes combined with color, form and space, Lantz was able to bridge the "linguistic" barrier and teach each musician the language of his "art score." Each color or shape would represent a feeling or a length of silence, and would thus be open to the musician's own interpretation. Not only that, they could start playing the "painting" from different places...the music was not linear!!!! In this way, a loose score or "picture" was defined by the composer, but the interpretation was for the first time, greatly expanded to include the musician in a multi-dimensional experience.

Gone were the harsh constraints of playing the same piece of music over and over again in exactly the same order, with the same rests and spaces and the same intensities rigidly defined. For the composer, there was an excitement to teach each new musician this improvisational language. For the musicians, they were empowered to experience music in a non-linear co-creative way. This was very successful for quite some time and Lantz toured the country and overseas extensively, taking his "art scores" to new audiences and musicians the world over. Eventually, it became too time consuming to teach the scores as the musical context advanced further and further from traditional notation. In many of the "art scores" from 1983 musical notes were rarely in the paintings, however, a new state of multidimensionality was gained by these explorations.

GALLERY AUDIO INTERVIEW

Location and Arrival on Planet Blue 1983
The String Quartet in D E F 1983
Violin and Piano Sonatas I, II, and III 1973
Woodwind Quartet for Flute, Cornet, Clarinet, and Bassoon 1973
Sonata for Harpsichord and Oboe 1973
Quartet for Piano, Celestra, Soprano Saxophone, and
Eb Saxophone 1976