In my efforts to learn my partners first language, Japanese, I have become increasingly interested in the potentiality of language and writing systems ability to convey sound, music and composition. In the Japanese writing system, Kanji 漢字 graphs constitute a major part of its signary as one of the language’s three writing systems. Particularly evident in traditional calligraphy practices , writing kanji necessitates a certain ‘rhythm’ of sorts – considering both the correct brush stroke order and amount of pressure applied in each movement. On a solely ‘physical’ level, I feel as though there are many intriguing overlaps with music and notation:

The calligraphy brush, with its arcing and straight movements are precise – and failing to do so would either alter or destroy a characters meaning entirely. For me, this is akin to the conductors baton, in which one organises and arranges individual parts to create larger meaning. Kanji too, shares these individual components – smaller graphs that composite the kanji as a whole – often referred to in Western studies as ‘radicals’.

These overlaps are what draw me towards writing about kanji (and Chinese hanzi) and graphic music notation together in my forthcoming essay. The weight of a stroke, the spatial relationship between components and the balance between individual parts and the whole all feel like shared concerns and potent for research. The composite structure of Kanji’s , and the embodied, rhythmic discipline its execution demands, seems to me useful framework for thinking about what potential of graphic scores.

Texts I have been exploring:

What Do Kanji Graphs Represent in the Current Japanese Writing system? Towards a Unified Model of Kanji as Written Signs
Keisuke Honda 

PERSPECTIVES OF NEW MUSIC : CONTEMPORARY NOTATION FOR THE SHAKUHACHI: A PRIMER FOR COMPOSERS – JEFFREY LEPENDORF