Music professor Mark Applebaum’s latest work perhaps fittingly has its premiere on April Fools’ Day at the Cantor Arts Center. Audiences have come to expect surprises from Applebaum, and Metaphysics of Notation promises to combine visual and performing arts in unexpected ways. Applebaum’s score—think Rube Goldberg meets Paul Klee, not standard musical notation—consists of pen and ink drawings on a dozen panels that will run at eye level, extending some 72 feet along the balcony above Cantor’s main lobby atrium. In addition, two mobiles bearing score fragments will hang in a small gallery at one end of the balcony. While the score makes a static visual exhibit, it will spring to life through performances by a series of different ensembles every Friday at noon until March 2010.
Although the placement of the score suggests musicians might well choose to be mobile, how they interpret the composer’s mysterious glyphs and pictographs is entirely up to them—as is the order in which they read the panels. During nonperformance times, museum patrons will be able to play excerpts of previous performances on a computer, and a CD compilation is planned.
Applebaum can envision dancers, performance artists and practitioners in other media joining in. But given the museum’s conventional functions, prospective performers have been issued a few guidelines. Players and audience share the space. Sound levels should not be excessive. Profanity and nudity “are discouraged, and performers are asked to generally avoid scaring the visitors.”
