Processes and Experiences of Creative Cognition in Seven Western Classical Composers

Andrea Schiavio; Nikki Moran; Dylan van der Schyff; Michele Biasutti; Richard Parncutt

doi:10.1177/1029864920943931

Processes and Experiences of Creative Cognition in Seven Western Classical Composers

Andrea Schiavio, Nikki Moran, Dylan van der Schyff, Michele Biasutti, Richard Parncutt

Music

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

In a qualitative study, we explored the range of reflections and experiences involved in the composition of score-based music by administering a 15-item, open-ended, questionnaire to seven professional composers from Europe and North America. Adopting a grounded theory approach, we organized six different codes emerging from our data into two higher-order categories ( the act of composing and establishing relationships). Our content analysis, inspired by the theoretical resources of 4E cognitive science, points to three overlapping characteristics of creative cognition in music composition: it is largely exploratory, it is grounded in bodily experience, and it emerges from the recursive dialogue of agents and their environment. More generally, such preliminary findings suggest that musical creativity may be advantageously understood as a process of constant adaptation - one in which composers enact their musical styles and identities by exploring novel interactivities hidden in their contingent and historical milieux.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	303-325
Number of pages	23
Journal	Musicae scientiae
Volume	26
Issue number	2
Early online date	8 Aug 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/1029864920943931
Publication status	Published - Jun 2022

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10.1177/1029864920943931Licence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Processes and Experiences of Creative Cognition in Seven Western Classical Composers",

abstract = "In a qualitative study, we explored the range of reflections and experiences involved in the composition of score-based music by administering a 15-item, open-ended, questionnaire to seven professional composers from Europe and North America. Adopting a grounded theory approach, we organized six different codes emerging from our data into two higher-order categories ( the act of composing and establishing relationships). Our content analysis, inspired by the theoretical resources of 4E cognitive science, points to three overlapping characteristics of creative cognition in music composition: it is largely exploratory, it is grounded in bodily experience, and it emerges from the recursive dialogue of agents and their environment. More generally, such preliminary findings suggest that musical creativity may be advantageously understood as a process of constant adaptation - one in which composers enact their musical styles and identities by exploring novel interactivities hidden in their contingent and historical milieux. ",

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AU - Parncutt, Richard

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