Examining creativity in collaborative music performance: constraint and freedom

Judith Brown

doi:10.52086/001c.31186

Abstract

Music performance is a creative activity that frequently occurs in collaboration. As stated by Robinson ‘creativity is a process more often than it is an event’ (2011: 152), where this process involves not only generating new ideas but also evaluating them. While researchers have examined the creative processes that occur in the musical collaborations that take place in orchestras, bands, choirs and smaller ensembles where musical ideas are both generated and evaluated in the act of performance itself, this article examines creative constraint and creative freedom in collaborative music performance, focusing on the musical interactions and communications between a piano accompanist and a solo performer. Drawing on the work of Katz (2009) and others, this article analyses an autoethnographic narrative to explore the creative dimensions of music performance for a collaborative pianist with both singers and instrumentalists. It concludes that while all musical collaborations share similar creative constraints and freedoms, there are significant creative differences for a piano accompanist when performing with singers and instrumentalists, adding to the understanding of the significance of creativity in collaborative music performance.

Highlights

Music performance is a creative activity that frequently occurs in collaboration
Judith has performed with some of Australia’s leading classical musicians and is an accomplished performer of music theatre and cabaret genres. Building on this creative practice, her doctoral thesis used autoethnography to examine the experience of flow in collaborative music performance as a piano accompanist
The idea of creativity as a process is the subject of this article, which explores the nature of creativity in collaborative music performance with particular reference to the musical collaborations between a piano accompanist and a solo performer

Summary

Introduction

Music performance is a creative activity that frequently occurs in collaboration. As stated by Robinson ‘creativity is a process more often than it is an event’ (2011: 152), where this process involves generating new ideas and evaluating them. While researchers have examined the creative processes that occur in the musical collaborations that take place in orchestras, bands, choirs and smaller ensembles where musical ideas are both generated and evaluated in the act of performance itself, this article examines creative constraint and creative freedom in collaborative music performance, focusing on the musical interactions and communications between a piano accompanist and a solo performer. Drawing on the work of Katz (2009) and others, this article analyses an autoethnographic narrative to explore the creative dimensions of music performance for a collaborative pianist with both singers and instrumentalists. Robinson goes on to state that this process of creativity involves generating new ideas and evaluating them This resonates with Schön’s concept of ‘reflection-in-action’ when a ‘skilled performer adjusts his responses to variations in phenomena. Drawing on my doctoral research (Brown 2011a, Brown 2011b) this article looks at the musical interactions between a piano accompanist and a solo performer and asks if there are creative differences for a piano accompanist when performing with singers and instrumentalists?

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion