I will have to test it out now for a presentation in Sydney ;) How does analyzing the themes of John Williams or even graphically animated scores sound?

The quoted section of the “manifesto” is simply pointing out that if you were conducting a symphony or running a jazz band rehearsal and instead of working from a score and parts you played everyone a recording, then (assuming all the players could get the correct pitches and rhythms by ear) you’d be communicating literally *everything* about how the song should be played. An audio recording is a statue of sound, a static record of a moment in the past when a piece was interpreted a certain way.

What I’m sure Joe was trying to say is that notated music presents your ears with nothing but the sounds in your own head. It’s the same as reading a script versus watching a TV show where all the choices have been made. It’s also something like giving someone a map with the destination marked, as opposed to driving them there yourself.

And in that regard I entirely agree that notation is a beautiful thing. I feel this point takes absolutely nothing away from synths, dub music, effects processing, MIDI or any of the other things mentioned here. It seems to me Joe only contrasted notated and recorded music to make a point, not to pit one against the other, which would be pretty absurd.