A descriptive score documents what was heard; a prescriptive score directs a performer

Following Seeger and Nettl, Magnusson distinguishes two directions of notation. A descriptive score is written after the fact to represent, archive, and analyse what has been heard — it aims at objectivity and detail (traditional transcriptions, waveforms, spectrograms, machine feature-detection all count). A prescriptive score is written before the fact as a directive to an interpreter, specifying pitches, durations, and to some degree dynamics and tempi. The dividing question is directionality: is the scribe notating what they want to hear, or what they have heard? Most score types (action, event, code, graphic scores) fold into this dichotomy, and a single score can shift roles — Seeger notes notation grew more prescriptive through the eighteenth century.

Examples

A spectrogram or ethnomusicological transcription (descriptive) versus a printed Classical sonata part (prescriptive); a live-coding source read as a prescriptive score being enacted by the interpreter (the machine).

Assessment

Classify given artefacts (a spectrogram, a jazz lead sheet, a SuperCollider file, a field-recording transcription) as descriptive or prescriptive, and state the directionality test you applied.