Creative learning and ‘original’ music
performance
This project explores the means by which creativity and originality
in musical performance might be fostered in the teaching studio,
practice room and academic classroom. Focusing on advanced
students at the Guildhall
School of Music & Drama and the Royal
College of Music, the research will interrogate conceptual
constructions of originality in relation to performance, noting
that while all performance may be creative, it may not be
‘original’.
The project will address six research questions:
- What qualities are thought to connote originality in given
types of performance?
- How do notions of originality vary
across different performance traditions, instruments, and
teachers or learners?
- What teaching and learning techniques
are most conducive to transmitting the musical skills and
knowledge required to surpass the routine and predictable
in musical performance?
- Should originality necessarily be
considered the most important artistic goal for each and
every performer?
- Is originality compatible with the interpretative
traditions that many musicians feel inspired or obliged to
perpetuate?
- How can the knowledge and skill acquired in the
teaching studio, practice room and classroom be used to maximum
benefit in performance?
Two postdoctoral research assistantships, held by Dr Mirjam James and Dr Karen Wise,
are associated with this project. They will carry out fieldwork at the Guildhall
School and RCM
and will observe teachers and their students using a range of
established methodologies. Their interactive observations during the three-year project will produce longitudinal data on teaching
practices and rehearsal, shedding light on the outcomes of
given techniques as against intended purpose. This work will
be accompanied by parallel study of performance-related academic
teaching methods (particularly historical and analytical)
in use at the Guildhall
School, RCM
and possibly other institutions, to explore potential efficacy
and relevance to the perceived quality and originality of
student performances.
The aims, then, are to describe current practices and their
perceived effectiveness, and to work towards the development
of an increasingly effective and integrated performance curriculum
in which students may aspire to, and attain, a heightened
sense of interpretative innovation as well as greater expertise.
A series of three project workshops will involve teachers
and learners at the RCM
and similar institutions as well as select specialists working
in different environments and/or performance traditions. These
events will permit fruitful engagement between practitioners
inside and outside the Western classical sphere.
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