An Investigation of Factors Affecting Compositional Creativity

• Main Author: 柯孟杰
• Other Authors: 洪瑞雲
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/86408618287434132997

碩士 === 國立交通大學 === 工業工程與管理學系 === 101 === The purpose of this study was to investigate the cognitive processes involved in musical composition. Specifically, we examined how composers generate new ideas to make music and how composers did to bring originality to their works. We proposed that composition process can be decomposed into several stages and conceptual combination is the underlying mechanism for musical creativity in every stage. Fifteen professional composers and eleven college students who have composed at least 3 pieces of music were interviewed. They were asked to describe the process of how a piece of music came to live. From their responses, we identified 4 stages in composition process: (1) motivation (theme) priming, (2) ideas finding, (3) motif (musical) generation, (4) methods and tactics finding. We also identified methods composers used to spur their creativity and types of conceptual combination that produced new ideas in musical composition. Incidents of conceptual combination were found in every stage of music composition, and it was most prevalent in the stage 4. A new type of conceptual combination: “random combination” was employed quite extensively by student composers. Compared to student composers, we found that experienced composers have a broader and looser conceptualization of music which enables them to try bold experiments with the music.