Why Collaborate? Critical Reflections on Collaboration in Artistic Research in Classical Music Performance

Abstract

This chapter presents a critical evaluation of the ideology of collaboration that has emerged within academia, and its implications for artistic researchers in music performance. I question the usefulness of a one-size-fits-all conceptualisation and definition of research collaboration. Highlighting the knowledge-political issues and power hierarchies that have been pervasive in the context of musicological and music psychological research that involved music performers and their performances, I argue that there is a need to create new models of collaboration that take into account the epistemological, aesthetic and ethical foundations and values of the performing artist’s practice and artistic identity. I critique the dominant model of research collaboration in academia, which is adopted from the business world and is driven by market values that represent the ‘other’ of artistic enquiry. What is needed is thus a recognition that the subjective and individual are still as important as the intersubjective and collaborative.