GRAPHIC MATERIAL

In this article, I will discuss my personal way of composing music, starting with graphic material. What is this graphic material? In my case, it's a set of basic symbols and colors that form a composition on paper. But first, I have to admit that this blend of the visual and the auditory isn’t something I invented. Rather, it’s a field that remains quite unknown, with endless ways to approach it. Just like two artists painting the same landscape will never produce identical results.

Whenever I start a new piece, I compose twice; first, I create a visual composition that I find satisfying, and then I compose music that is inextricably tied to it.

In my process, basic elements like lines, points, textures, geometric shapes, and colors—when combined effectively in a composition on paper—offer enough sonic and timbral possibilities for me to create music that respects the nature, density, and tension and release of these forms.

Lines can be thick, thin, continuous, or intermittent. They might stretch across the paper, connecting two geometric shapes with different textures. They might even extend off the paper, which could be interpreted musically as a sudden end to the sound associated with that element.

Dots can be large or small. They might grow to form a circle, within which we could place more lines or points.

Textures can be rough, fine-grained, wavy, smooth, or coarse. I can draw them or create a collage with textures I find in magazines.

Colors can be warm, cool, muted or vibrant, light or dark, each evoking a specific sound or even a melody or chords.

The combination and arrangement of all these elements generates what I call a "two-dimensional abstract space" on paper. Any space can be traversed from one end to another along a certain path, and these abstract spaces are no different. Instead of walking through them, we move through them with our eyes.

HOW TO TURN VISUAL MATERIAL INTO SOUND MATERIAL

Once I have the graphic result in front of me, a new phase begins with the goal of transforming it into sound.

First, a series of decisions need to be made. We analyze everything we have in front of us, and the graphic composition provides valuable information, offering a world of musical possibilities.

All music has a beginning and an end, so at this point, I decide on the path I’ll follow across the paper to structure the piece. Musical structuring is important because it creates a timeline where musical events can be organized, sound densities can be managed, climaxes built, and so forth. Ultimately, it’s about where and when things happen in a strategic way.

After this decision, I begin to associate timbres or sounds with the elements on the page. Imagine I have three red lines ascending on the paper, intersecting with a square filled with small dots. This might suggest three distinct sounds gradually increasing in volume until they become white noise (the static sound of an untuned television). You might reach the same conclusion, which would be a coincidence. Or you might interpret it completely differently. That’s the magic of these pieces; no two people would create the same music from the same graphic result.

Personally, I care that the final sound result is pleasant to listen to. Even if there are noisy effects throughout the piece, they coexist with more melodic sounds in a tonal structure.

THIS IDEA HAS HISTORY…

The fusion of the visual and musical worlds naturally intrigued me years ago, particularly as I was finishing my studies at the conservatory.

After I had done several projects along these lines, my composition teacher introduced me to a doctoral thesis by Marina Buj, completed in 2015: Graphic Scores and Circular Musical Graphics in Contemporary Art (1950–2010). Marina’s work focuses on teaching, research, and artistic expression.

Her thesis includes examples of drawn scores, collage scores, photographic scores, video scores, and even film scores, among others.

She presents highly varied, curious, and lesser-known works in music history, both visually and audibly.

Although many of these works come from the 20th century, we can’t overlook certain unique pieces that have survived to this day. For instance, works from France during a brief period known as the Ars Subtilior in the 15th century, when music was conceived in a unique and original—though impractical—way due to the difficulty of reading these forms. One of the most beautiful and notable scores is Belle, Bonne, Sage by composer Baude Cordier, a love song in the shape of a heart.

Graphic scores remind us that the two grand realms—the visual and the auditory—can coexist in many ways, presenting two artistic results that form a cohesive whole, satisfying the expressive needs of many artists, both past and present.