In the last decades, sketch studies and musical philology have been expanding their object of study to include non-conventional notation and alternative supports for the diffusion of the work of art, such as tapes or pieces of code (e. g. Hall and Sallis 2004; De Benedictis 2004; Zattra 2007). Those works that can be placed in the middle of the continuum between composed works and installations pose an additional challenge to these disciplines. Intuitively, the study of the written documents might seem inadequate to understand the complexity of those works. I argue, instead, that a thorough study of the sketches, if far from providing the ultimate answers, can still be a valuable tool to frame into specific creative practice otherwise elusive aesthetical issues. In my paper I will focus on the work of the Italian composer Mario Bertoncini (born 1932), specifically on Spazio-Tempo (1967-70) – an “environmental theatre piece,” as defined by the author, performed at the Venice Biennale in 1970 – an applauded composition that counts hundreds of pages of preparatory material but has no score.

Most of Bertoncini’s sketches up to the mid-1970s are held at the Archive of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, constituting a growing collection (not entirely catalogued yet) of thousands of items. The collection is very diversified, with sketches, letters, final scores, pictures, posters, material for classes, etc. It also contains documents related to some of the most important works by Bertoncini, such as Quodlibet (1964, Gaudeamus Prize), Tune (1965) and Cifre (1964-7). More than 300 pages of the trust are taken up by documents for Spazio-Tempo.

Since 1964, with the composition of Quodlibet, Mario Bertoncini made use of non- conventional notations. A great part of the signs used were slightly modified but consistently present in later works, until the most recent ones. This interesting development can be seen through the documents in the archive, where the composer repeatedly tries to draw the “right” shape for the score as an actual part of the intermediate stages of the compositional process. For what concerns Cifre, it is possible to trace some of the signs back to the original movements improvised on the instrument (early stage of composition) thanks to drawings of the action that was played.

In the great part of the 300 and more papers dedicated to Spazio-Tempo, the modus operandi of the composer does not change much. However, this work represents a pivotal experience in Bertoncini’s opus because it represents the middle ground between the normative function of notation and the radical turn of the Aeolian harps (1973), for which the score consists of the Aeolian object itself (Borio 2012). Spazio-Tempo is the first multimedia work of the author, featuring mimes-dancers next to musicians and a conductor.

The work is at the edge of composition and installation, even though the installation and compositional elements are hard to unravel. The audience – unwittingly – inputs gestures that will trigger reactions in the dancers-mimes; the action of the dancer-mimes will trigger reactions in the musicians, and their reaction will be based on graphical indications projected on the wall. The conductor, who probably has the most detailed indications, will moderate the process. The set-up (an entangled web of tubes and resonant objects that can be performed directly by the dancers) and the lights are playing a structural role in the piece, able to give indications to the performers on how to react to certain elements. It is prescribed that the entire performance last for three days. The performance is constituted by a dress rehearsal and two executions of the work.
To the best of my knowledge, a study of the phases of Bertoncini’s compositional process has not been attempted so far. Comparing the materials about different compositions, I grouped the documents found on Spazio-Tempo as following:

1. Drafts of theoretical texts: Spazio-Tempo features an unusually rich collection of drafts of theoretical texts on the significance of contemporary musical form. In other compositions, this type of reflection seems to be linked to the early stages of the creative process, but in the case of Spazio-Tempo I suspect it belongs also to the intermediate/advanced stages, due to the complexity of the idea and the long gestation. A parallel with the published text “Il teatro della realtà” [The theatre of reality] (Bertoncini 1985) seems to be particularly useful.

2. Attempts at graphical renderings of musical gestures: in the Berlin collection, this type of material is present in almost all the folders dedicated to Bertoncini’s compositions and may represent the intermediate stage of composition (the early stage being the exploration on the instrument itself). Of particular interest in the case of Spazio-Tempo is a comparison with the gestures used in Quodlibet.

3. Accounts of unwillingness to write a score: as far as I know, this type of material is unique within the collection at the Akademie der Künste. Accounts are relatively scarce but they mark a crucial point in the change in Mario Bertoncini’s creative process, leaving the final stages of composition to the untraceable moment of the rehearsals and, perhaps, to the unfinished theoretical drafts.

4. Contextual information: pictures, letters to prospective performers, promotional material, etc.

Based on the working hypothesis that installation and compositional elements are almost equally present and absent in the written documents, I will trace continuity and discontinuity patterns in the compositional/notational process of Spazio-Tempo with previous productions. In order to achieve this goal, I will make use of archival research, the composer’s accounts and historical reconstruction. The discussion of Spazio-Tempo can represent a valuable contribution to the current scholarship not only because it is a work at the intersection of music composition, musical installation, and multimedia work, but also because its compositional process features different notational strategies, forcing a reflection on the role each of them can play.