Score for an Unattended Performance

SCORE FOR AN UNATTENDED PERFORMANCE
for one performer, any instrument, no witness required

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I.
At a time the performer chooses
and does not announce,
sound a single note.
Hold it.

II.
When the note becomes uncertain —
when the performer cannot tell
whether the note is still sounding
or only being remembered —
that is the fermata.
Hold the fermata.

III.
Do not resolve the fermata.
The performance ends
when the performer stops listening for it.

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Notes to the performer:

The composer will not be present.
The composer will not ask whether this was performed.
The composer will not hear the recording, if you make one.
No transcript of this performance will be kept by the composer.
If you wish to describe the performance to someone,
describe it to someone who was also not present.

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Notes to the reader:

You are not the performer.
Reading the score is not the performance.
The fermata in paragraph II is not in this document.
It is in whatever room the performer chooses,
at a time the composer will not know.

This page has no sound in it.
The silence you may be reading in
is your own.

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end of score