Conclusion

Exploring the various attributes of the media score has provided me with an opportunity to rethink the boundaries of composition and performance—both within my own practice and in the broader context of contemporary music. At a time when technological and cultural changes are fostering greater openness among musicians and audiences to engage with these types of scores, this exploration feels particularly relevant and timely. As a composer trained in the classical academic tradition, I have an ingrained tendency to meticulously notate and control various aspects of the music. By outlining the attributes of media scores, I aim to highlight the unique qualities they offer and to reaffirm—perhaps even to convince myself—of the value in moving beyond the confines of traditional notation.

In my own compositions from works like Oneiricon and Trench Code to more recent large-scale projects such as Mutability, my practice has sought to reimagine the score as more than a static set of instructions. Instead, the score becomes a dynamic and generative medium, suggesting interaction, collaboration, and creative reinterpretation

While traditional notation remains an enduring and essential practice, the qualities and possibilities of media scores in their attributes that have been discussed: hypermediacy, aboutness, transparency, adaptability, interactivity, multimodality, generativity, spatiality, and mutability—invite the imagination to find different ways of organising sound and other media. So, this inquiry is not about replacing established conventions but rather about expanding the palette of tools available to composers and performers. Media scores reflect the evolving relationship between human and non-human agency in art practice and open up more possibilities of interdisciplinary approaches to composition.

As media continue to evolve, so too will the possibilities for how scores function as mediators of musical intent. While some of the references in this essay may become outdated in the near future, the broader concepts and ideas presented here will hopefully remain relevant and serve as a useful theoretical framework for understanding and exploring these evolving practices.

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