The textility of marking: performers’ annotations as indicators of the creative process in performance

Musicology’s performative turn was formulated in opposition to the disciplinary dominance of music notation in favour of a focus on the creativity of performers. However, scores are a central part of many musicians’ creative work, and a complete conception of creativity in performance should take this centrality into account. This article investigates performers’ uses of notation, particularly annotation, in both composed and improvised musical practices. Using observational methods, we examine how performers engage with their notations and how this engagement resonates in their creative processes. By approaching the score as a concrete material object rather than a representation of an abstract structure, we move beyond a paradigm that opposes notated permanence to performed and/or improvised transience. Drawing on anthropological work on artistic production, creativity, and improvisation, we propose an understanding of (an)notation as integral to the forms of imagination, creativity, knowledge, interaction, and even improvisation that occur in music-making.