Creative practice in contemporary concert music

(Eric Clarke - Oxford)

Creative practice in music, particularly the music of our own time, takes place in a distributed and interactive manner embracing the activities of composers, performers and improvisers, despite the sharp ‘division of labour’ between composers and performers that traditional concert culture presents. By concentrating very largely on music of the ‘common practice’ period, performance studies has neglected a proper consideration of music for which performance practices remain in flux, precluding direct study of the ways in which the two primary creative agents (composer and performer) interact and negotiate.

The aims of the project are:

• to study in detail the creative interactions of performers with composers in the specific context of preparing and presenting performances of new works
• to examine a range of notation, preparation and performance practices in contemporary music
• to interrogate ‘distributed creativity’ between composer and performer in contemporary performance, and in so doing to revive a broad notion of improvisation that has been sidelined in the history of performance.

Focusing on interactions between composers and solo instrumentalists, the project will employ the following methodologies:

• analysis of written accounts of post-WWII composer/performer collaborations
• qualitative analyses of diary data, interviews and recorded discussions/rehearsals featuring each composer/performer pairing
• quantitative analyses of practice and performance data (MIDI and sound recordings)
• score-based analysis coupled with analyses of technical demands.

Primary material for the project will be a number of new works for specific performers commissioned from composers working in associated University music departments around the country. In order to facilitate the sharing of knowledge, skills, and access to performers, composers and specialist facilities, three project workshops will be held in conjunction with these universities, taking advantage of their complementary expertise in contemporary composition and performance. These interactions will contribute to the Performance Studies Network, and will disseminate knowledge and awareness of contemporary musical creativity out from the network to the performing/composing community and ultimately a wider public audience.