Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-75dct Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-11T09:02:00.825Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Compositional Strategies in Computer-Based Music-Making

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Göran Folkestad ,
David J. Hargreaves  and
Berner Lindström
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent technological developments and the increasing impact of the media mean that listening to music and creative music making constitutes a major and integrated part of many young people's lives.

The aim of the present article is to describe the process of computer-based composition, and how this is perceived by young composers. This paper describes a three-year empirical study of 129 computer-based compositions by 15 to 16-year-olds. Computer MIDI-fti.es were system- atically collected covering the sequence of the creation processes step by step; interviews were carried out with each of the participants; and observations were made of their work.

All the participants succeeded in creating music, and in the subsequent analysis, six qualitatively different ways of creating music were identified which could be divided into two main categories: HORIZONTAL and VERTICAL. These categories, devised by the authors in this context, refer to compositional strategies, not to structures in the music itself. In the horizontal categories composition and arranging are separate processes, whereas in the vertical categories composition and arranging are one integrated process.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Journal of Music Education , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , March 1998 , pp. 83 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Folkestad, G. (1989). Elektmtekniska hjdlpmedelimusikundervisningen [Electro-technical means of assistance in music teaching]. Goteborg: Goteborg University, Department of Musicology.Google Scholar
Folkestad, G. (1991a). Dalorn och den nya musikelektroniken i ett didaktiskt perspektiv [The computer and the new music technology in a didactic perspective]. In Center for research in music education (Ed.), Datorer i musikundervisningen. (Report No. 1991:12). Stockholm: Center for Research in Music Education.Google Scholar
Folkestad, G. (1991b). Musikkomponerande på mellanstadiet med hjälp av synt-sequenser [Music composition in the upper primary school with the help of synthesisers-sequensers] (Report No. 1991:19). Stockholm: Center for Research in Music Education.Google Scholar
Folkestad, G. (1992). Datorbaserat musikaliskt skapande: Lägesrapport [Computer based creative music making: A report] (Report No. 1992:24). Stockholm: Center for Research in Music Education.Google Scholar
Gardner, H. (1982). Art, Mind, and Brain: A Cognitive Approach to Creativity. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Gardner, H. (1991). The Unschooled Mind: How Children Think and How Schools Should Teach. London:Fontana Press.Google Scholar
Gardner, H. (1993a). Creating Minds: An Anatomy of Creativity Seen Through the Lives of Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, and Gandhi. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Gardner, H. (1993b). Multiple Intelligence. The Theory in Practice. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Gardner, H. and Perkins, D. (1989). Art, Mind, and Education: Research from Project Zero. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Glaser, B. G. and Strauss, A. L. (1967). The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Grout, D. J. (1960). A History of Western Music. London:J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd.Google Scholar
Hammersley, H. and Atkinson, P. (1983). Ethnography: Principles in Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jones, S. (1992). Rock Formation: Music, Technology, and Mass Communication. London:Sage Publications, Inc.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kratus, J. (1985). The use of melodic and rhythmic motives in the original songs of children aged 5 to 13. Contributions to Music Education, 12, 1–8.Google Scholar
Kratus, J. (1989). A time analysis of the compositional processes used by children ages 7 to 11. Journal of Research in Music Education, 37, 1, 5–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larsson, S. (1993). Om kvalitet i kvalitative studier [On quality of qualitative studies]. Nordisk Pedagogik, 13, 194–211.Google Scholar
Lindstrom, L. (1992). Processinriktad utvardering och bedomning [Process directed evaluation and assessment]. Forskningom Utbildäing, 3, 34–44.Google Scholar
Lindström, L. (1994). Portföljmetodik i estetiska ämnen [Portfolio method in aesthetic subjects]. Paper presented at Nördisk Forening för Pedagogisk Forskning Kongress i Vasa. Stockholm: Lärarhögskolan i Stockholm.Google Scholar
Ling, J. (1983). Europas musikhistoria - 1730 [Europe's music history - 1730]. Uppsala: Esselte Studium.Google Scholar
Marton, F. (1992). Phenomenography and 'the art of teaching all things to all men'. Qualitative studies in education, 5, 3, 253–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marton, F. (1995). Cognosco ergo sum. Nordisk Pedagogik, 15, 165–180.Google Scholar
Ödman, P.-J. (1992). Didaktisk/fenomenologiska aspekter pä musikskapande med hjälp av datorer [Didactical/phenomenological aspects of creative music making with the help of computers]. In Datorer i musikundervisningen (11–21). Stockholm: Center for Research in Music Education.Google Scholar
Paynter, J. and Aston, P. (1970). Sound and Silence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schok, D. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Sloboda, J. A. (1985). The Musical Mind: The Cognitive Psychology of Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sloboda, J. A. (1988) (ed.). Generative Processes in Music: The psychology of Performance, Improvisation, and Composition. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Sloboda, J. A. (1992) Can cognitive psychologists and educators help learning? A plea for humility. ESCOM Newsletter, 1, 17–21.Google Scholar
Stälhammar, B. (1995). Samspel: Grundskola - Musikskola i samverkan: en studie av den pedagogiska och musikaliska interaktionen i en klassrumssituation [Interplay - school and music school in collaboration: a study of pedagogic and musical interaction in a classroom situation]. Goteborg: School of Music and Musicology, Goteborg University.Google Scholar
Thorsen, S.-M. (1991). Musikundervisning med hjalp av ny teknik [Music teaching by means of new technology]. (Report No. 1991:26). Stockholm: Center for Research in Music Education.Google Scholar
Turkle, S. (1984). The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc.Google Scholar
Upitis, R. (1992). Technology and music: an intertwining dance. Computers and Education, 18, No. 1-3, 243–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webster, P. R. (1988). Creative thinking in music: approaches to research. In Gates, J. T. (Ed.), Music Education in the United States: Contemporary Issues. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press.Google Scholar
Webster, P. R. (1992). Research on creative thinking in music: the assessment literature. In Colwell, R. (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning New York: Schirmer Books.Google Scholar
Webster, P. R. (1994). Thinking in sound: Studying children's improvisation. In ISME (Ed.), Musical Connections on Tradition and Change (146–53). Tampa: ISME.Google Scholar
Wiggen, K. (1971). De tvä musikkulturema [The two music cultures]. Stockholm: Sveriges Radios förlag.Google Scholar
Williams, D. and Howell, D. (1990). Master Tracks Pro 4. Half Moon Bay, CA: Passport Designs, Inc.Google Scholar
Wolf, D. P. (1988). Opening up assessment: ideas from the arts. Educational Leadership, 45, 24–29Google Scholar