Understanding the creative process in the shaping of an interpretation by expert musicians: Two case studies

Abstract

This article presents the methodology and partial results of a study on the creative processes underlying nine performers' interpretations of a single musical work. Data were collected by videotaping rehearsals and soliciting musicians' verbalizations of the rehearsal process. Musicians also completed a reflexive questionnaire, and an independent third party observed and described the musicians' actions. The data were first assessed through content analysis. Subsequently, interview techniques borrowed from phenomenology were used: self-confrontation interviews, which enable the verbalization of the action a posteriori; and explicitation interviews, which facilitate access to the preconscious processes and enable a detailed description of the action. Preliminary results for two performers demonstrate the varied strategies that musicians use to create original interpretations. The strategies observed were congruent with the existing literature and include alternation between divergent and convergent thinking and creative associations. Nevertheless, our results also suggest the existence of a phase step of artistic appropriation specific to each musician.

Las representaciones mentales como herramienta para la interpretación musical y sus características desde la práctica instrumental: un estudio en el marco de la ciencia cognitiva

“…En el modelo propuesto se puede observar que, como parte de este proceso, se accede al nivel de representaciones de rasgos musicales, lo que permite generar una imagen auditiva de la obra: "...cómo quiero que suene". Sin embargo, es importante resaltar que este concepto o idea de la obra no sólo se refiere a aspectos formales, sino a una idea emocional y/o dramaturgia (Héroux, 2016): "tiene que emerger la parte que va más allá del texto en la música...", es decir, el relato emocional; "tengo una idea emocional de la obra...". De acuerdo con lo reportado por los sujetos, estos aspectos también se consideran cruciales para guiar el plan de trabajo.…”

Creative Processes in the Shaping of a Musical Interpretation: A Study of Nine Professional Musicians

“…Studies of creativity typically concentrate on general aspects of creativity common to all artistic domains or on elements particular to a given domain (Kaufman and Baer, 2005 ; Kaufman and Sternberg, 2010 ). Creativity in music performance was first studied with respect to improvisation (Clarke, 1988 , 2012 ; Pressing, 1988 ; Kenny and Gellrich, 2002 ) and, more recently, with respect to music interpretation (Lisboa et al, 2011 ; Héroux and Fortier, 2014 ; Héroux, 2016 ; Payne, 2016 ; Barros et al, 2017 ; Wise et al, 2017 ). As Clarke ( 2012 ) notes, identifying creative elements in the interpretation of written music is not an easy task.…”

“…In this stage, the musician seeks a feeling of expressive precision and balance in his or her playing. In a previous paper that presented partial results of this research project (Héroux, 2016 ), the author described two musicians' differing approaches to the artistic appropriation phase. One musician, S3, sought to adhere to the score as much as possible, with the goal of conveying the internal message of the music via a formalist approach, while for the other musician, S2, it was important to convey a personal message.…”

“…The participants used reflection, extramusical supports, emotions, body reactions, intuition, and other tools to generate new musical ideas and evaluate the accuracy of their musical interpretations. We identified elements related to those already discussed in the literature, including the creative process as an alternation between divergent and convergent thinking (Guilford, 1950 ), creative associations (Lubart, 2015 ), and artistic appropriation (Héroux and Fortier, 2014 ; Héroux, 2016 ).…”

The “Artistic Image” Concept Applied to a Fugue at the Early Stage of Piano Practice: An Observational Study

“…The case studies by Héroux (2016) tried to understand the creative process by two professional guitar players while building their interpretation during the entire process of learning a new piece. The author (2016: 321) observed that the search of an artistic image was one of the elements present in their practice even before playing the piece on the instrument.…”