more about scores in western music

Any Western musical score is a written record of a specific piece of music that has been created and written down by its composer or surrogate. Normally, a composer's identity is known and he receives credit in the score; if his identity is unknown, as it might be for a piece of traditional or folk music, he remains anonymous.

A score contains musical notes, directions to performers, and other items that indicate what a musical composition should sound like if played. In effect, in Western music a musical score is the music; a score specifies what music to play and precisely how to play it.

But in Western music a score doesn't have to be played to be understood. Any properly trained person versed in the musical language in which a score is written can read and understand it. Such a person may be said to "read" the music and hear it in his "mind's ear."

A Western score is much like the pages of a book on which words are written; it resembles the language that people use when they talk to each other or prepare documents; but the musical symbols and directions on the score's pages are specialized notations that are specific to a Western standard notation.

As with a printed page of text, a score may be handwritten, hand printed, printed by machine, displayed on a computer monitor, or recorded on almost any other kind of medium. Scores have been written on clay tablets and papyri and carved into stone walls. Today, most scores are printed on paper in most parts of the Western world, but the computer is playing an increasing role in the creation of music and in the preparation, storage, dissemination, and publication of scores.

In most situations, a Western classical performing musician is expected to be true to the score. That is, he is expected to read, follow, and reproduce the music exactly as the score directs when he plays it. Adherence to the notes and directions on the page is mandated whenever a musician learns to play the piece or practice it, as well as when he performs it before an audience.

Classical scores can be so complex and hard to remember, most musicians are happy to use a score as a guide, crutch, or aid; but some musicians, especially virtuoso soloists, insist on memorizing a score before they appear on stage to play it, even if the score runs to tens of thousands of notes. Amazing as it may seem, some professional classical music soloists, especially those on the world stage, are capable of memorizing an entire concerto; they would not dream of appearing in public without committing an entire work to memory. In the 20th century, Jascha Heifetz, whom many believe to be one of the greatest violinists of all time, possessed this ability, as did Sergei Rachmaninoff, whom many believe to be one of the greatest pianists of all time. It is a faculty possessed by concert performers in the 21st century, as well.

Of course, Western musicians are free to depart from a score when an occasion warrants. For example, a classical performer may omit a section of a score in the interest of time; or he may transcribe a score for a different instrument or key; or he may replace a section with a variation of his own composition. When he does these things, professional ethics demand that he publicize his changes and make them very clear.

modern Western standard notation

Systems that standardize musical annotations for this purpose are called musical notation systems. Any musical notation system is a system for writing and reading music. It has its own symbols, terminology, and grammar.

Modern Western notation is a musical notation system that has become a de facto standard system for writing Western music. A Western score contains whatever directions or other indications a composer might wish to employ to describe what his music should sound like. However, a composer is not completely free to choose. He is normally expected to follow the symbols, rules, and practices that have become part of the modern Western notation system.

Why? Composers, musical performers, scholars, connoisseurs, critics, and musically literate readers—all must speak the same language, as the expression goes. As with ordinary speech or writing, if a composer is to be understood by his readership he must employ a musical language his readers will recognize and can read. For this reason, composers are limited to the symbols and directions that are set down in a standardized musical notation system that his expected readership also must know.

As with a writer who chooses his words and grammar from a written or spoken language, a composer writing a modern Western score chooses his symbols, directions, and other musical language from the de fact standard Western musical notation system, a system that was created with the goal of expressing music written within the Western musical tradition. In the same way that a writer's vocabulary is contained in a standard lexicon, the symbols, directions, and other notations that a composer writes with are specified by and taken from the standard notation system.