Bibliographic and Discographic Inquiries in Music Composition

Abstract

This article touches on developed research designs in music composition called bibliographic and discographic research designs which are geared towards inquiries in music composition that involves producing a creative work and at the same time maintaining the intellectual phase of that creative work. It was established out of an experience encountered in teaching music composition research, supervising and assessing graduate dissertations in music theory and composition. It is situated within the qualitative paradigm of research and links to the compositional process under the framework of the Stage Theory propounded by Wallas. The design has three phases: Data collection and Generation phase, Analytic phase, and Creative phase. These phases provide an epistemic approach in music composition research that may not necessarily need creative ethnomusicological stance for composing intercultural musical artefact. It is envisaged that it advances the relevant knowledge in music composition research by means of practice and to offer solutions to the problems encountered by graduate music composition candidates during their dissertation journey.