Score clue

A score clue refers to a particular kind of clue in a music question that rewards a specific engagement with a score:

1. sensu lato it is used to specifically refer to "note-spelling" clues which list a series of tones in order ("D-E-F-F-etc"), sometimes with specific emphasis, timing, or direction.
2. sensu stricto it is a clue which asks for any information which could be obtained from reading a score (hence "score clue"). This includes note-spelling but also things like instrumentation and tempo markings.

The former sense is much more common in general usage, to the point that some have explicitly spoke out against the "semantic narrowing". The focus on a more specific definition rather than a broader one means the term has evolved in the opposite direction from terms like "stock clue".

History

Score clues (and note-spelling in particular) are notable for occupying a central role in the discussion of classical music questions.

The inclusion of "score clues" was a major part of the reforms of music writing in the early 2010s - they represented a concrete way to reward players for deeper engagement at a time when many questions were not doing so. The writing of notes allows one to directly clue things like themes and motifs instead of referring to them by names, opening the door for more segments to be clues and granting an advantage to people who have consumed those pieces.

Overabundance

The music reforms of the previous decade were so successful that score clues became abundant and then (eventually) maybe a little too abundant. Over the same period, the term "score clue" began to narrow to "note-spelling" as that particular variety began to dominate. With that earlier period of activism fading in the community's collective memory, many modern players argue against what they view as contentless strings of letters because they have never known a world before their popularization.

The downside of note-spelling is the barrier to entry. Besides the actual recognition required, the mental work required to parse a note-spelling is non-trivial - this is evinced by the fact that not all people who have listened to a piece can buzz on a corresponding clue, even if they have a music background. Some have compared it to comp math, though the precision of this analogy is in dispute.

For people without the requisite training note-spelling clues are among the most arcane: beyond all other kinds of score clues and on par with things like "descriptions of mathematical formulae" or "untranslated foreign languages". Even a trained ear can fail to use a clue if it features an obscure segment or an awkward phrasing. This gap between who the clue is meant to reward (music players familiar with a piece) and who it actually does (potentially no one) is why an important part of writing score clues is to write them directly and write them well.

These issues were especially pronounced at lower difficulties like the high school level, where editors felt obligated to continue the trends that were ongoing in college quiz bowl but did not necessarily have the touch to ensure their clues were appropriate for an audience with less background knowledge.

The following is a useful list of other clues that one can use in music questions that reward the same sort of person as note-spelling:

There are dozens of ways to clue music, and there's nothing special about so-called "score clues" (meaning, there's no reason for them to be near the top of a hypothetical sorted list). An unsorted list of some music clue types: instrument mechanism · extended techniques · treatise · pedagogy · acoustics · pure theory · music notation · music publishers · music history · ethnomusicology · musicology/analysis · original analysis · arrangements/quotations · sounds similar · composition inception · composer quip · composer style · composer biography · composer relationships · musician biography · writings on composers · score clue · performance practice · performance/recording history · conductors · programmatic music · commonality (e.g. something depicted by music) · catalog numerology · term or coinage · literary basis

-narbflaith guestourgenburger, Friday 2/2/2021 on the Discord