Abstract
Music notation, often thought of as a neutral vehicle of communication between composer and performer—a mere memory aid or set of performance instructions—is in truth hardly unbiased. It not only shapes music, but also shapes how we think and talk about it and, by extension, how we analyze it. This essay studies the influences of notation on traditional analytical understandings of music and how through the lens of disability––particularly blindness––those understandings can be “reread.” The discussion explores narratives of analysis that explicate musical structure by relying on visual means of interpretation. An obvious place to begin critiquing these narratives is by examining how tactile representations like Braille notation conceptualize music. Accounts of visually impaired musicians’ experiences with notation and analysis will motivate discussion of alternative ways of hearing and representing musical structure. The essay then contemplates other means of understanding that serve the goals of music analysis with reference to concepts of “universal design.”