Description
Until recently, ideas of creativity in music revolved around composers in garrets and the lone genius. But the last decade has witnessed a sea change: musical creativity is now overwhelmingly thought of in terms of collaboration and real-time performance. Music as Creative Practice is a first attempt to synthesize both perspectives. It begins by developing the idea that creativity arises out of social interaction-of which making music together is perhaps the clearest possible illustration-and then shows how the same thinking can be applied to the ostensively solitary practices of composition. The book also emphasizes the contextual dimensions of musical creativity, ranging from the prodigy phenomenon, long-term collaborative relationships within and beyond the family, and creative learning to the copyright system that is supposed to incentivize creativity but is widely seen as inhibiting it.Music as Creative Practice encompasses the classical tradition, jazz and popular music, and music emerges as an arena in which changing concepts of creativity-from the old myths about genius to present-day sociocultural theory-can be traced with particular clarity. The perspective of creativity tells us much about music, but the reverse is also true, and this fifth and last instalment of the Studies in Musical Performance as Creative Practice series offers an approach to musical creativity that is attuned to the practices of both music and everyday life.
Table of Contents
Table of ContentsList of figuresAcknowledgementsIntroduction: creativity in context1 Making music together1 Listening together2 From the inside out3 You do an up-bow, I do a down-bow4 Beyond real time5 Production as relational practice6 Assemblages in action7 Creativity on the other side2 Imagining music1 Cultures of imagination2 Composition by stages3 Improvisations on paper4 Seeing through the myths5 Sonic ontology6 The extended musical mind7 Talking back3 Creative in a different sort of way1 The ghost in the machine2 Significant others3 The composer's alter ego4 Traditions of creative learning5 Pathways to creative performance6 Owning creativity7 A culture of creative repetitionConclusion: creativity everywhereReferencesIndex
