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Creativity and the time-pressured situation of musical performance
First meeting of the new academic year! The processes of improvisation and its relationship to creativity have been theorised in both domain-general and music-specific terms. When improvisation takes place through musical performance it’s happening in time-pressured circumstances. Both the occurrence and duration of the material events and actions that constitute the improvisation are contingent on an emerging, embodied situation that is indexed in time. The site of production – the people, the place, the room, the moment – of music improvisation is relevant to the creative expression which unfolds.
This is a special one – Dr Andrea Schiavio will be visiting with us from the University of York, to talk about Andrea and Nikki’s recent paper!
“When we listen to music, as well as to other patterns of sound…” Dowling, 2012.
“The study of music perception encompasses a broad range of phenomena, including the perception of basic attributes of sound such as pitch, duration, and loudness, the principles by which lower-level features are extracted so as to produce higher-level features, the perception of large-scale musical structures, cultural influences on music perception, developmental issues, aberrations of music perception; and so on.” Deutch, 2017.
A huge amount is known about musical perception thanks to scientific research into psychoacoustics, the science of audition. However, sound is only one dimension of musical experience.
Listening can appear, outwardly, as a passive activity. The situation and conventions of European classical music performance heighten this illusion. Yet we know that this perspective is not sufficient to explain either the processes or the products of artistically-motivated, human behaviours. So, how else should we look at things? Scientific research into ‘music’ is vast. But dominant narratives about musical meaning, function and value do tend to shape the way that evidence is both generated and interpreted. Perhaps existing evidence already explains the fundamentally expressive and creative character of musical participation?
Digital, online infrastructures influence everyday situations of life and living. Digital tech and data shape our children’s educational opportunities, and organise the interactions between teachers and learners. Should music education be any different?
Situations of instrumental tuition are typically 1:1 or 1:2. What transactions actually occur in these relationship-led sites of learning? How do these attention-rich, expensive, privileged opportunities relate to classroom music curricula? How should they relate?
Reading: Virginia Eubanks (2018). Introduction to Automating Inequality : How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2018.
How do institutional forms of knowledge and culture shape the research we do and the things we say and teach about Music in Universities? Do institutional hierarchies affect the way that music-interested scholarly communities organise themselves, and who is involved? (How) do we think this shapes general music education? Public and everyday discourse about music?
No set reading. Open conversation to share ideas and suggestions, as responses to work in preparation.
Discussed: What size of ensemble requires a conductor, and why? What happens to presentational music when scores/scripts are taken out of the equation? What is revealed about the conductor’s function when ensembles choose not to appoint a musical director – what organisational model takes shape instead?
Interdisciplinary study group based in Music (ECA) exploring current topics in expressive arts research. We identify these based on our collective interests and expertise in ethnomusicology, psychology, digital and online education, and applied community music research. We range widely across topics, because we’re interested primarily in the material and practical situations of music and arts activities in social life. This scope allows us to examine methodological aspects of music research, such as creative practice, participation and representation.
Thu 23 Jan, 14:30-16:00 – Understanding musical listening literature
Thu 27 Feb, 14:30-16:00 – Writing and publishing (research professional skills session)
Thu 27 Mar, 14:30-16:00 – Dialogue as methodology in music research (presentation of work-in-progress by Morag)
Thu 24 Apr, 14:30-16:00 – Musicianship in the situation of the primary classroom – Nikki, Yi, Rebecca – update following their SEMPRE conference presentation
Thu 29 May, 14:30-16:00 – Alison reporting back on SGSAH internship: Game design for music education scenarios(? TBC)
Thu 26 Jun, 14:30-16:00 – Topic TBC – could be group feedback on journal article draft about musical leadership for creative collaboration in ensembles… (…Mark?)
