This article proposes queernotation as a lens to understanding existing works and as a way forward for composers and musicians who find themselves limited by traditional forms of music notation. Applying queer ways of knowing and creating, I investigate the inherent boundaries in notation and how queer theory can guide us to break out of them. Queernotation connects score types to three key areas of queer theory: queer erotics, queer temporalities and queer futurity. Extending these theoretical approaches to their musical possibilities, I identify three modes of queering notation. These approaches are demonstrated in this article through existing historical and recent works and practically applied in a chamber opera that tests concepts of queernotation in directing improvisers to perform conceptual ideas on the stage. Notation for electronic instruments and with digital mediums demonstrates how technology facilitates new approaches that can queer music notation.
