The composer’s musical maps

In the music world, Augusta Read Thomas is famous for the precision and specificity of her scores. “They’re very, very detailed and profoundly nuanced,” she says. The details may be useful or reassuring comments to various players in addition to the notes, dynamic markings, tempo indications, and other standard instructions.

Here’s a sample from Astral Canticle, a piece for solo flute, solo violin, and orchestra, which appears the first time the soloists and full orchestra play simultaneously in the work: “You will be covered dynamically by the orchestra for some of these seven measures. This is okay.” (Note to readers: “Covered dynamically” is the polite way musicians say “drowned out.”)

Thomas is also famous for the large and colorful “map” she draws for each composition, no matter its type or length. It’s an illustrated timeline that shows everything that’s going on, utilizing shapes, colors, and texts. The map for Sweet Potato Kicks the Sun has the beatboxer’s actions and attitudes displayed across the top line; blue semi-circular lines are the various arcs into which the story is divided. The settings are shown pictorially, and a red line composed of straight segments shows rising and falling action literally as well as figuratively, as the characters move from rooftop to ground level to the cellar (notated with “deeply resonant, otherworldly, dark, unknown, shadows, dangerous feeling, bravery, depths”) and back up again. — M.T.