Tools for the Descriptive Transcription of Expressiveness in the Guitar Performance: A proposal of applied systematization

Abstract

This article is a partial result of a doctoral research study. Through applied means, it aims to demonstrate the “tools for a descriptive transcription of the expressiveness in a guitar performance”. This “tool” is being developed for the purpose of systematically describing the expressive resources used by performers in phonographic recordings. Methodologically, a discussion was carried out around the terminology of expressiveness and the idea of descriptive transcription, the latter developed by the ethnomusicologist John Blacking (2007). In addition, we prepared an exposition of expressive resources to be described (time, dynamics, timbre, articulation, vibrato), and presented an applied proposal that demonstrates the use of the “tool” in a recording of Insistência - Ponteio no. 1 written by the composer Orlando Fagnani (1960) and performed by the guitarist Milton Nunes (RECITAL, 1961). In conclusion, we consider that the application of this “Tool” in a wide number of phonograms of different performers and different periods may help to identify recurring performance choices, which, in turn, would point out similarities and differences among the various schools of performance.

Keywords

• expressividade. transcrição descritiva. violão. milton nunes.