Music performance in indeterminacy: introduction to a model of performative construction

Abstract

An exciting focus for the analysis of musical interpretation of contemporary music text is to consider, as Clarke (2006) pointed out, the relationship between content and form of the notational representation of music and its musical realization by the performer—the latter's intention—in the sense of discussing how these musicians perform their active role through creative acts. As I intend to argue, such acts are strategies, decision-making, and actions that aim to overcome the gaps in meaning that emerge in the reading of the musical text. To include this perspective in the argument of the present study, I begin by examining musical notation as a means for realizing the musical idea and, particularly, the notational representation in the context of indeterminacy in music. The study is completed with a discussion around improvisation as a condition for interpreting contemporary music text.