This volume is a collection of three essays that express some of the fundamental issues addressed by the research group ‘the musician’s relation to notation’ (2009) in the framework of the Orpheus Research Centre in Music (ORCiM). Considering ‘notation’ as the totality of words, signs and symbols supporting the road towards a real performance of music, this research endeavour aims to embrace different styles, eras and conceptions, going far beyond any form of static (or ‘demiurgical’) authority, in order to assert the permanent need of critical thinking.
