Among the exhibits on display at the Royal Academy of Music during its centenary tribute to the violinist Yehudi Menuhin is a single page of a Bach violin sonata. The printed page is darkened with Menuhin’s pencil markings fixing the contours of a phrase, the direction of bow strokes, fingerings, the speed and width of vibrato: the expression, in graphite, of a player’s interpretation and craft.

Peter Sheppard-Skaerved, a violinist and scholar who organized the exhibition, said in an email that the page creates “a sense of ‘digging away’ at the material, almost as if going at it again with the pencil might reveal more, find more of the vein of ore which we all hunt.”

That hunt is still central to the art of a classical musician. But these days there are new weapons. Increasing numbers of players are using iPads and laptops instead of sheet music, especially now that the latest generation of tablets come in the same size as a standard score. And styluses like the Apple Pencil, which was released in November, are beginning to take the place of pencils and erasers.

If, say, in the course of a summer festival, a pianist plays a familiar quintet with a new set of partners, she can save the group’s interpretive markings in a neatly archived file without having to erase her usual dynamics and tempos. A young professional hopping from one master class to the next can keep track of multiple, even conflicting, instructions, traditions and technical tips.