The score as catalyst : curating collaboration in Pauline Oliveros’ Thirteen Changes

Abstract

This article investigates how a verbal notation score, Pauline Oliveros’ Thirteen Changes (1986), can facilitate creativity, collaboration, and intercultural dialogue in contemporary art music. The study explores how everyday language, used as notation, can open inclusive and interdisciplinary spaces. Based on a practice-led case study involving seven improvisers from diverse musical and cultural backgrounds, it examines three interconnected themes: the accessibility of everyday language, the inherent indeterminacy of verbal notation, and the score as a mirror of group dynamics. Through the processes of rehearsal and performance, it reveals how translation, identity, facilitation, and intercultural exchange influence the ways verbal notation mediates between personal imagination and collective artistic creation.

The findings highlight that text scores function not only as creative frameworks but also as reflective tools that expose underlying group structures, power dynamics, and cultural expectations. They further support the argument that verbal notation calls for an active commitment from performers, transforming them into performer-creators and fostering shared musical authorship alongside the coexistence of multiple narratives. At the same time, they underscore the crucial role of context, highlighting how the curator and/or facilitator shape the ways in which such scores are perceived and enacted.