- Accompanist (role)
- Ad libitum
- Agenda
- Aleatoricism
- Aspect
- Balance
- Bartle types
- BCG
- (Cognitive) flow
- Conductor (role)
- Constellation
- Constructor (role)
- Co-optionality
- Cue cards
- Dice
- Dimension
- Downbeat
- Downtime
- Elegant Game
- Emergence
- End Condition
- Event (musical event)
- Extended technique
- Facilitator
- Fighting
- Flow
- Found sound
- Gameplay flow
- Genre
- Heteronomous Music
- Horizon of intent
- Improvisation rite
- Insert game
- Inspire cards
- Instrument Preparation
- Judge (role)
- Karaoke
- King-making
- Learning curve
- Ludomusical dissonance
- Meaningful Choice
- Mechanic
- Music game
- Non-idiomatic music
- Notation Cards
- Open work
- Parameter
- Pervasive Game
- Player (role)
- Prompter (role)
- Psychographics
- Quarterbacking
- Rhythm cards
- Rhythm game
- Roles
- RPG
- Rule Cards
- Speedrun
- Stacking
- Trading
- Transition
- Upgrade
- Victory condition
- Xenochrony
- XP
- Yes, and...
This glossary entry is a draft. You can help by editing it or discussing in the comments
A work of art which is not fully determined by its author.
Usage
Music games are open works, because the performance of a single game will always significantly differ from one to another. This is useful especially when contrasted with classical or popular music, or other genre without improvisation. Games in general are a classic example of open works.
Theory
"Open work" was introduced in Umberto Eco's book Opera Aperta ) and works of contemporary music were an important inspiration for the topic (see the review for details). There are interesting similarities to how Roland Barthes ) described the term "Text", when contrasting it to "work":
We know that today post-serial music has radically altered the role of the 'interpreter', who is called on to be in some sort the co-author of the score, completing it rather than giving it 'expression'. The Text is very much a score of this new kind: it asks of the reader a practical collaboration.
The terms "open work" and "text" refer to a similar topic and stay in a complex relationship to each other. However, it's interesting that music was so much at the forefront of these changes in understanding of both the role and the essence of human creations.
More detailed theories of openness were developed later, an example in music may be RABR which is short for Random Access — Broadness, which splits the matter into two separate aspects, where "RA" is related to the overall form of the piece and "BR" to the material within sections ).
References
📜 Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl. 2017. “RABR Analysis – Rating Degrees of Openness in Experimental Repertory”. Preprint. https://vbn.aau.dk/da/publications/rabr-analysis-rating-degrees-of-openness-in-experimental-repertor
📜 Barthes, Roland. 1971. Image Music Text. Translated by Stephen Heath. London: Fontana Press.
📜 Eco, Umberto. 1989 [1968]. The Open Work. Translated by Anna Cancogni. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
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