"Differences between conventional musical notation and the derived notation for electronic music".

[1] Music notation or musical notation is any system that represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written symbols. The conventional system uses a five-line stave, generally beginning with a clef, which indicates the position of one particular note on the line. Pitch is shown by placement of notes on the staff and the length of the notes are shown with different note values and dots and ties. Notation is read from left to right. This method of interpreting music has been used for hundreds of years, by different musicians of all genres, and proves to be the most popular form of notation. As technology advances, new innovation lead to life altering changes. There is now programs which you can use to score music you have composed, for example Sibelius, a program I used at A-level.

Notation for electronic music has still not been standardised, but generally uses traditional reference symbols. Staff and clef signs are used in conjunction with specially adapted pitch and rhythm notation.

Here is an example of notation for Gesang der Jünglinge by Karlheinz Stockhausen

[2] 

Karlheinz Stockhausen founded the concept of harmonizing sung tones with electronically generated tones. At certain points in the composition, the sung tones are understood as words; at other points, they have only the value of sounds. Between these extremes are reached different levels of word-related clarity. 

Edgard Varese was a French-born composer, who moved to the United States. Varese spent his first few years promoting his vision of new electronic music instruments, conducting orchestras, and founding the New Symphony Orchestra. [3] For the 1958 World Fair in Brussels the architect Le Corbusier commissioned composer Edgard Varese to create what would today be called an immersive sound installation for the Philips Pavilion Le Corbusier was creating. Resulting in the production of Poeme Electronique


Edgard Varese - Poeme Electronique

This is a score of Poeme Electronique

[3]

Due to the technology to create Poeme Electronique was not available to Varsese until the time he composed Poeme Electronique, he realised his vision that he had persued from early in his career using more conventional instruments. [3] When early electronic instruments became available, Varèse was quick to use it towards his goal of "organized sound." These works from the twenties and thirties often anticipated methodologies and aesthetics that would be idiomatic to tape music.

Edgard Varese’s was fascinated and involved with the thriving New York jazz world, prior to the composition of Poème Électronique. Varese worked a series of jam sessions with some of the leading jazz musicians. One of the attendees was John Cage, an important man of electronic music notation.

John Cage the avant-garde composer, also pioneer of electronic music, chance music and utilized non-standard use of musical instruments. Critics have Cage one of the most influential American composers of the 20th century. 
When Cage began composing percussion music and music for modern dance, he used a technique that placed the rhythmic structure of the piece into the foreground. 
John Cage's revolution was insightful. His piano piece 4'33" is an example of his expression of his philosophy through music. In the piece the pianist does not make a sound at the instrument. Cage's ideas has no need to 'lecture' about them, he presents them and let's their own strength carry.

[4]

Sonata lll takes the form of AABB, it is 8½ bars long. A part is 1 bar long and B part is 3¼. Cage's Sonata pieces were cast in the form of early classical keyboard sonatas and most of them followed the standard AABB structure.

Jean-Baptiste Barrière composed the piece Chréode, in reference to my previous blog What does the future hold for computer generated music in live performance"? I spoke about IRCAM, the Institute for Research and Coordination Acoustic/Music. The piece Chréode was created with the CHANT program at IRCAM, using sound synthesis. Chréode is dedicated to the CHANT/FORMES programs.

After researching into the field of electronic music and the notation used it is clear that each musician has their own interpretation of how electronic music should be scored. Composers such as John Cage concentrate on the mathematical way of scoring, whereas composers such as 

Edgard Varese, he created imaginative scores. I have found electronic music notation very complex and relative to the composer. In comparison to c

onventional music notation, which is very structured and standardised. 

Bibliography:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_notation
[2] http://mykopop.wordpress.com/2009/04/25/die-eersteling-van-elektroniese-musiek/
[3] http://playtherecords.com/2006/06/edgard-varese-poeme-electronique.html
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonatas_and_Interludes