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The composer sent the ensemble a notebook of separate instrumental parts. When asked by Levin to send a full score, Lutosławski replied: “if I wrote a standard score, mechanically transferring all the individual parts into it, I would be misleading you, offering a false image of my composition – it would simply be a score for a different work. For example, it would suggest that the notes appearing vertically in the same position should be played simultaneously, which contradicts my intentions. It would deprive the work of its ‘mobile’ character, which is one of its most important traits.” The problem was finally solved by the composer’s wife Danuta, who was in charge of preparing the scores of individual instruments in Lutosławski’s ensemble works. She stuck the mobiles onto paper in approximate order and separated them by frames, thus eliminating the problem of synchronisation of different instrumental parts. Still, the case of the intended lack of score shows the significance of the problem – not only in its technical aspects, but also aesthetically. For a long time the composer had considered the written score a necessary although unwanted compromise between his ideas and the practical requirements of the performers, who in their individual written parts were given instructions on how to communicate, moving from one section to another within the work.
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