Creativity And Theory In Musicianship

This book fills a gap between theory and creativity in musicianship. This frequently observed gap fixes theory as a rigidified level of thought, where creativity is excluded from a canonized corpus of ideas. Creativity, on the other hand, is preconceived as a theory-less, wild activity that blossoms while performing pre-composed musical structures. This book provides a discussion of the creative drive in theory and theory-inspired thoughts while understanding how these ideas shape performance. The future of music is only as limited as one’s imagination, and, to this end, the text illuminates examples of creative musicianship.

This book represents a new approach to musical creativity, dealing with the semiotics, mathematical principles, and software for creativity processes. After a thorough introduction, the book offers a first practical part with a detailed tutorial for students in composition and improvisation, using musical instruments and music software. The second, theoretical part deals with historical, actual, and new principles of creative processes in music, based on the results and methods developed in the first author’s book Topos of Music and referring to semiotics, predicative objects, topos theory, and object-oriented concept architectures. The third part of the book details four case studies in musical creativity, including an analysis of the six variations of Beethoven's sonata op. 109, a discussion of the creative process in a CD coproduced in 2011 by the first and second authors, a recomposition of Boulez’s "Structures pour deux pianos" using the Rubato software module BigBang developed by the third author, and the Escher theorem from mathematical gesture theory in music. This is both a textbook addressed to undergraduate and graduate students of music composition and improvisation, and also a state-of-the-art survey addressed to researchers in creativity studies and music technology. The book contains summaries and end-of-chapter questions, and the authors have used the book as the main reference to teach an undergraduate creativity studies program and also to teach composition. The text is supported throughout with musical score examples.

This book fills a gap between theory and creativity in musicianship. This frequently observed gap fixes theory as a rigidified level of thought, where creativity is excluded from a canonized corpus of ideas. Creativity, on the other hand, is preconceived as a theory-less, wild activity that blossoms while performing pre-composed musical structures. This book provides a discussion of the creative drive in theory and theory-inspired thoughts while understanding how these ideas shape performance. The future of music is only as limited as one's imagination, and, to this end, the text illuminates examples of creative musicianship.

This collection initiates a resolutely interdisciplinary research dynamic specifically concerning musical creativity. Creativity is one of the most challenging issues currently facing scientific psychology and its study has been relatively rare in the cognitive sciences, especially in artificial intelligence. This book will address the need for a coherent and thorough exploration. Musical Creativity: Multidisciplinary Research in Theory and Practice comprises seven sections, each viewing musical creativity from a different scientific vantage point, from the philosophy of computer modelling, through music education, interpretation, neuroscience, and music therapy, to experimental psychology. Each section contains discussions by eminent international specialists of the issues raised, and the book concludes with a postlude discussing how we can understand creativity in the work of eminent composer, Jonathan Harvey. This unique volume presents an up-to-date snapshot of the scientific study of musical creativity, in conjunction with ESCOM (the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music). Describing many of the different aspects of musical creativity and their study, it will form a useful springboard for further such study in future years, and will be of interest to academics and practitioners in music, psychology, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, neuroscience and other fields concerning the study of human cognition in this most human of behaviours.

How do we develop musical creativity? How is musical creativity nurtured in collaborative improvisation? How is it used as a communicative tool in music therapy? This comprehensive volume offers new research on these questions by an international team of experts from the fields of music education, music psychology and music therapy. The book celebrates the rich diversity of ways in which learners of all ages develop and use musical creativity. Contributions focus broadly on the composition/improvisation process, considering its conceptualization and practices in a number of contexts. The authors examine how musical creativity can be fostered in formal settings, drawing examples from primary and secondary schools, studio, conservatoire and university settings, as well as specialist music schools and music therapy sessions. These essays will inspire readers to think deeply about musical creativity and its development. The book will be of crucial interest to music educators, policy makers, researchers and students, as it draws on applied research from across the globe, promoting coherent and symbiotic links between education, music and psychology research.

Jazz, America's original art form, can be a catalyst for creative and spiritual development. With its unique emphasis on improvisation, jazz offers new paradigms for educational and societal change. In this provocative book, musician and educator Edward W. Sarath illuminates how jazz offers a continuum for transformation. Inspired by the long legacy of jazz innovators who have used meditation and related practices to bring the transcendent into their lives and work, Sarath sees a coming shift in consciousness, one essential to positive change. Both theoretical and practical, the book uses the emergent worldview known as Integral Theory to discuss the consciousness at the heart of jazz and the new models and perspectives it offers. On a more personal level, the author provides examples of his own involvement in educational reform. His design of the first curriculum at a mainstream educational institution to incorporate a significant meditation and consciousness studies component grounds a radical new vision.

Musical imagination and creativity are amongst the most abstract and complex aspects of musical behaviour. This book is a wide ranging, multidisciplinary review of the latest theory and research on musical creativity, performance and perception by some of the most eminent scholars in their respective disciplines.

This book creates a platform for music educators to share their experience and expertise in creative music teaching and learning with the international community. It presents research studies and practices that are original and representative of music education in the Japanese, Asian and international communities. It also collects substantial literature on music education research in Japan and other Asian societies, enabling English-speaking readers to access excellent research and practical experiences in non-English societies.