THREE SCORES by Christopher L. Costabile

Language Score # 1: "Play for Someone," for solo guitar

1.  Find a guitar and choose one of the six strings.

2.  Find a current phone book and turn to a random page, selecting a random phone number on that page.

3.  Call the number and wait until someone on the other end of the line answers, or it is picked up by an answering machine, then tell the person or machine on the other end of the line, "I'm going to play for you."

4.  Play the frets on your chosen string which correspond to the numbers in the phone number you selected, from left to right, in any rhythm and at any speed.

5.  Choose to either say "goodbye" to the person on the line, or have a conversation with them.  The piece ends when the connection on the line is terminated.

LANGUAGE SCORE # 2: "ONE OR TWO WAYS OF HEADING HOME"

1.  Using chalk on a chalkboard, calculate the number of days you have been alive, remembering to account for leap years.

2.  Take the street number of your address and subtract it from the number of days you have been alive.

3.  If the new number is positive, draw this many new lines on the chalkboard as quickly or as slowly as you like, making the lines any length you desire.  The piece is over either when all of the lines have been drawn or when the performer runs out of chalk.

4.  If the new number is negative, bow to the audience, as the piece is now over for them, and proceed to take this many steps in the direction of your residence.  Once the number of steps has been fulfilled, you may choose either to return to the performance space for the remainder of the concert, or to continue walking, without the assistance of any vehicles, until you have reached home.

GRAPHIC SCORE # 9: "THE PERSISTENCE OF MELODY #2," FOR ANY INSTRUMENT

1.  Using black chalk, outline a rectangular surface on the ground, approximately 5 feet by 2 feet.  Within this space, draw the treble clef and the five lines of the music staff.  Also, draw a whole note rest at the very center of the staff.

2.  Find two stands of any material, 3 to 4 feet tall each, and set them at either end of the music staff.  Across these stands, lay two long, thin metal bars, parallel, approximately 10 inches apart.

3.  Find between 10 and 20 pages of music scores by Beethoven, Mozart, and any other non-living classical music composer(s) of your desire, and lay them perpendicular across the metal bars so that they are secure, but in danger of falling through the bars, onto the ground.

4.  Light all of the music scores on fire.  They will crumble into black, fiery balls of paper and fall to the ground inside of the music staff, forming a melody.

5.  Play the melody on any instrument, making sure to pause at the whole note rest, in honor of all the dead composers who have created this new melody together.