The text of the article is extracted from the recording of an interview of Pascal Pariaud realized in November 2016 by Jean-Charles François and Nicolas Sidoroff. Pascal Pariaud is a clarinetist, and he teaches at the National School of Music at Villeurbanne (a suburb of Lyon, France). He supervises workshops in which the practice of graphic scores is an important component. He is a member of the improvisation trio PFL Traject and of the collective PaaLabRes.
The author describes in detail practices developed with various students’ groups with the graphic scores by Fred Frith over several years. Each of these scores proposes a different approach to a particular sonic matter. The students are also asked to develop in parallel their own graphic scores.
Several projects involving graphic scores have been developed outside the music school that have taken place in urban settings : children making music accompanying street theatre, music designed by pupils in a primary school for a film, a work by Llorenç Barber with all the bell towers of Lyon sounding together with the participation of advanced students.
The relations between graphic scores and improvisation are explored in several pedagogical contexts. Their role in the recent history of experimental music is stressed. The use of recording students performance and listening back is explained. The special case of the clarinet class with a single timbre available to interpret graphic scores is addressed. The practice of “Sound Painting” is critically analyzed. Several examples of adding sound to a film are given.
In general the author in his exposition of his pedagogical practices explains how he considers all the complex issues related to the use of graphic scores.