Asemic Music Score by Brent Bechtel

Asemic music score by Brent Bechtel (Michigan, USA)

 

 

Brent (Nathan) Bechtel was a popular contributor to the first Asemic Front, and he generously granted permission to include this interesting piece in the kick-off of AF's second iteration.

 

I am very interested in sharing event scores - music and/or performance - that might be considered asemic. This colorful work by Brent Bechtel is a piece that could be interpreted for musical performances or more generally for some kind of event, even though it cannot be "read" in a conventional sense. I am hoping AF viewers will look at this as an asemic music score and consider the possibilities of the form. So, as before, Brent Bechtel's evolution as a visual poet has an affinity to AF's own organic progression.

 

Here is a closer look at the score's more colorful page. The connection between color and tonal musical expression - synesthesia - is an apparent route to an interpretation of the piece, were a musician or musicians tasked with a performance.

 

 

 

  

Spoken word asemic performances, either spontaneous or based on event scores, are already a precedent, even if not as common or popular as asemic writing on the page. For instance, documentation of numerous performances by John M. Bennett can easily be considered spoken word asemics; and it worth taking some time to listen to some of these online if you have not already done so. Spoken word asemics if sung might be a route to asemic music.

 

Based on conversations I have had with other asemic writers, asemic music on the audio level would be harder - if not impossible - to achieve. Especially given heavy experimentation in the field of music, it might be that the asemic concept simply cannot be applied to music and only exists in the unique realm of language. Then again, perhaps imaginative composers will carve out an asemic music genre on the audio level. Ironically, as this work by Brent Bechtel indicates, written asemic scores on the page are possible and have huge potential (because musical notation is a process of signification). Perhaps the audio dimension of asemic music is rooted in silence?

 

 

- DVS

 

 

 

 

Asemically altered page by Brent Bechtel