Hacker News Reader

Interesting that Nelson Goodmanis is mentioned. IMO music notation has the same, albeit lesser observable, problem as language and that's context. Regardless if it’s the Köln concert or a modular synth. If we try to capture all context for -let's say- the first second of a musical piece, it’s almost impossible to do.

View on HN

What’s the context of your opinion? ;) By that I mean, what context do you see missing from music notation that should normally be there, and what would it accomplish? What is the goal behind capturing all context, and when is that goal important? Do have examples?

The author gives the example of the Köln Concert; we can buy scores to play the piece, but the score doesn't contain enough information to _really_ replicate the performance. That's what I meant by the missing context.

That’s a specific case of a piece explicitly and intentionally excluding the notes because it’s supposed to be improvised, right? The very point of the notation in that case is to avoid replicating a performance exactly. So what context is needed that’s missing? Why is replicating the performance exactly even a goal, when it’s not what the author wanted?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com