Werktreue revisited. Notes on the Process of Creating and Performing Audio Scores

“To be true to a work is to be true to its score”, philosopher Lydia Goehr aptly summarizes the maxim on which the concept of “Werktreue” is based. Werktreue develops as a regulative (in connection with the work-concept around 1800 from the classical-romantic art music tradition) in order to appropriately implement the normative requirements set in the composition – the work – in its interpretation – its performance. A basic prerequisite for ensuring the appropriate realization of the work is, in turn, appropriate notation, written down in a score.

In the current discourse of so-called Audio Scores, however, a written notation (whether in conventional, graphic or in form of text scores) no longer serves as the basis for the performance, but pure sonority takes center stage. Orally transmitted, recorded and/or live-generated sounds serve as Audio Scores. Hence, the translation process carried out by the musicians during the performance no longer takes place as a switch between various media, but on a purely sonic/auditory level. By focusing on the reproduction and imitation of sound through sound, the intention of Audio Scores is to develop a new process in the creation and performance of works.

Nevertheless, it seems, that these artistic approaches presuppose a very strict and traditional conception of musical works as self-contained and constant artifacts created by composers, which are constituted by specific musical structures and are to be adequately realized by performers. Whether and to what extent the approach of “comprovisation” in Audio Scores – i.e. an intertwining of compositional and improvisational techniques – allows for a breaking down of rigid hierarchies (which developed with the work concept) between composers and performers (as listening subjects) in the (collective) process of the creation and the performance of Audio Scores, I will discuss in detail using concrete examples (including works by Alvin Lucier and Liza Lim).