In comments on a post about the relationship
between composition and research (here),
musician and archaeologist Roya Arab suggested it would be helpful to have some empirical studies investigating composition-research
projects "so that applicable knowledge, theories, techniques and tools that
have been gained from these research projects can be established (or not as the
case may be)". As it happens, Flemish composer-researcher Hans Roels took a
comparative look at research projects by composers in Flanders. I asked him to introduce
his study for this blog.
Hans Roels
Developing meaningful relations – a study of artistic
research in music composition in Flanders
This
text is a summary of a study that I have made on research in music composition
in Flanders. It is the result of a collaboration between the Orpheus Institute
and the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp (Artesis Plantijn University College)
within the MAO meetings (Module Artistiek Onderzoek). The study is based on the
concept that artistic research is characterized by a close interaction between
research and artistic practice. Therefore, I examine how artistic practice and
fields of knowledge, including artistic research, are integrated in the design
and method of the research outputs. Although I focus on the results and
proposals in this text, I'll start by giving a short overview of the design of
my study.
My
sources consist of five Ph.D. dissertations and eleven master theses in music
composition from the five institutions for Higher Music education in Flanders.
These outputs were all made between January 2011 and July 2014. I have also set
up an online survey in which 23 composers participated. These composers were
performing or supervising research. This survey provided me with additional
background information for the analysis of the dissertations and theses.
My
first finding in this study is that the disclosure and dissemination of
research outputs is not yet optimal. It is not obvious to obtain a full paper
or digital copy of all the dissertations or master theses. There may be several
reasons:
- different library systems and databases;
- no uniform requirements for the artistic parts of the research
outputs: some dissertations contain scores, others don't, and yet others only contain a selection of scores;
- some
editors object to disclose scores and recordings;
- some
composers-researchers object to disseminate their dissertation or score, e.g. because the composition wasn't performed yet.
The
next insights relate to the integration of research and artistic practice.
Although the composers/researchers underline the importance of a close
interaction between practice and research in their discourse and the online
survey, the dissertations and theses demonstrate a considerable influence from
established disciplines such as musicology, music history, or music cognition.
The research questions are mostly answered in the text part on these
established disciplines. Only in one of the five dissertations is there a clear
interaction between practice and research and to a lesser degree in two other
ones. In general, the text about the personal practice is relatively short
compared to the part based on music cognition or history.
In
the master theses the gap isn't that wide: generally, the items and problems
are more closely related to artistic practice, and the text about the personal practice
is as extensive as the other parts. Master research also shows more diversity
in design and methods . Together with the Ph.D. dissertations, they could form
a larger corpus (to develop artistic research in music composition) with a
wider array of research approaches. But, in fact, master research is
undervalued, and its results and insights are not used in post-master research.
Another
gap reveals itself between the discourses on artistic research on the one hand
and results of artistic researchers on the other. The number of references to
artistic research literature in the dissertations is never more than five,
although there are always at least 100 references in the bibliography.
Moreover, the general argumentation and content of these dissertations and
theses does not build upon other artistic research. There are of course a few
exceptions, i.e. positive examples, and there are also original and fascinating
designs and methods, but, generally, there are almost no references to artistic
research, and the argumentation about the relation between research and
artistic practice is short and simple.
The
same remark applies to the reasoning about the role of the researcher. Although
reflection is acknowledged to be important in the online survey, it is absent
or idiosyncratic in the dissertations and master research, simple and without
references to the extensive literature on reflective research, and to the literature
on the position of the researcher in his/her research.
The
results in this study can be summarized as three gaps that exist between:
1. master and
postmaster research;
2. discourses
on artistic and reflective research on the one hand and results of artistic
researchers on the other;
3. text/research
part and the artistic practice.
What
can we do to bridge these gaps in music composition research? How can we ensure
that the work of a researcher has an impact on another researcher or composer?
That they read and discuss each other's work? I
have three proposals , partly based on practices, examples and suggestions, that
I discovered during this study.
The
first proposal is very basic and straightforward: the results of research in
music composition need to become more accessible. This is a conditio sine qua
non if we want to improve the impact of research and have composer-researchers listen
to each other's production. Also, minimum requirements and control mechanisms
need to be set up by institutions to assure that the research output contains
all the artistic productions, and that it ends up in libraries. On an
inter-institutional level, a dissemination procedure could be set up to select
the most valuable outputs of the master research. Together with the Ph.D. dissertations, the
master theses create a larger corpus of research output, which helps future
researchers to consciously choose their own approach and foresee problems. In
the 'corpus' of my study, three research approaches can be distinguished: a theoretical
approach, in which new compositional concepts are conceived of and elaborated
upon; an analytical approach, in which personal compositions are based on
insights from the analyses of historical compositions; and, finally, a
'non-western' one, in which ethnic music is studied.
This
last approach faces serious challenges, as these projects did not manage to
transcend the trivial, all the while describing the links between their
research and artistic practice (e.g. non-western scales or rhythms that are
described to be part of the compositions). The larger collection of master and
postmaster outputs helps to spot challenges of specific research approaches.
Finding artistically relevant research questions and situating them in the
current music practice, seem to be urgent, especially in this 'non-western'
approach.
My
second proposal concerns the individual researchers’ responsibility to develop
a more elaborate discourse in dialogue with other texts on the overall design
of the research. The parts of the dissertations and theses that deal with a
specialized topic could be shortened in favour of a well-argued positioning of
the research project within a diverse and rich tradition of reflective and
artistic research and practice. A way to realize this could consist of
expressing the position as an artistic researcher towards existing, strong
knowledge domains in music composition. In this study two such domains were identified:
(score) analysis and the (research) history of composition. This 'research
history', pre-dating the official launch of 'artistic research', consists of a
large and diverse collection of texts, compositional practices and products,
documented by various people and researchers. Examples are the 'recherche
musicale' at the GRM institute in France in the second half of the 20th century,
or a book such as Henry Cowell’s 'New Musical Resources'.
The
other knowledge domain is analysis, and I use this term for the discipline that
examines the result (or product) of the compositional practice. Especially the
analysis of the score has a long and strong tradition in the music
conservatories.
In
the dissertations and theses of this study, both analysis and the history of
composition pop up regularly, as could be expected from an influential
knowledge domain. These domains appear both traditional and new forms. However,
these new forms are often implicit, rather than articulated and elaborated in
order to develop the discourses on artistic research in composition.
Let
me illustrate this with score analysis. In the theses and dissertations of my
study, a kind of 'reflective' analysis deals with the scores of the composer-researcher.
These are analysed to obtain new insights on what s/he is doing while
composing, on the inspirational sources or on the relation with other composers
and compositions. Nevertheless, in most cases, the researcher/composer (safely)
relies on a traditional score analysis (pitch scales, structure, etc.) without
explicitly asking how the reflection and self-learning capacity through an
analysis of the score can be enhanced. The goal is new, but the method is
conventional. At this point, the lack of knowledge of the relevant literature
hinders the researcher in elaborating this new form of analysis and asking
challenging questions about the role of 'reflective' analysis.
My
third proposition is a call to create a real research environment for
music composition research, and to rely less on an individual approach. An
environment that allows for experiences and practices that are shared and
discussed between researchers and artists. On the one hand, such a network
should support and stimulate a researcher in experimenting with unknown
research designs and methods, to make room for diversity in research styles.
This diversity would be welcome in Flanders, especially, where certain types of
composition research are lacking. For instance, no reflective enquiry based on
dialogue was found in any of the studied dissertations and theses, even though
this is a widespread practice outside of composition. On the other hand, such an
environment should also challenge a researcher to develop a thoroughly argued
and an elaborate stance on the fundamental concepts and methods in his/her
project.
Although
the current study was constrained to the situation in Flanders and considered a
limited number of dissertations and master theses, it served to create a global
overview of composition research and to discuss the requirements for developing
these individual research practices into a research community or discipline. I
hope that these findings and ideas can inspire other people outside Flanders.
Finally,
I’d like to make propose three -perhaps unrealistic- research plans for
artistic research in music composition.
First,
the “+1” plan, creating an extra research year for the most valuable master
theses.
Second,
the “-1” plan, to convince Ph.D. students to finish their dissertation one year
before the end of their deadline. During the 'extra' year, the main part of the
master thesis or the 'finished' dissertation remains the same, but time is
spent on:
·
discussing and refining the concepts and
design of the research project together with other researchers and composers;
·
expressing the relation with (score) analysis
and the history of research in composition;
·
publishing and disseminating the research
output.
Third,
the “1+1=3” project, negotiating with several institutions to come to an overview
and spot the gaps in current research. (For instance, there is no composition
research using an 'emergent' method in Flanders.) Next, create an experimental
research project which focuses on developing a research design, on performing
the actual research during a short period, and on evaluating this design and
its results.
I
am convinced that these three plans -or mild provocations- could advance the
current research in music composition, increase the impact of the individual
research outputs and give artistic research in composition a more distinct
shape.
This text is an adapted version of a presentation by the
author on the EPARM 2015 conference (Graz, Austria). An extensive article on
the study of music composition research in Flanders is currently (January 2015) under review.
