This paper investigates the intersection of well-formed structures in music with neurocognitive structures and responses in expert musicians. As musicology has explored musical structures to great length, and neuroscience has begun exploring the neural structures that underscore musical experiences, little research has been done to investigate how functional differences in music structure relate to neural structure. As the overwhelming majority of professional performing musicians have regular contact with music structures in applied and theoretical contexts, it is of interest to understand how the functions of these music structures correlate with neurocognitive structures when listening to or performing music. Furthermore, this work aims to explore how experience with improvisation drives the relationship between the function of musical structures and its neural correlates. This work is motivated by the idea that improvising musicians regularly employ techniques to change the prescribed music structure to fit the dynamics of the musical environment. This implies that expert improvising musicians may view the function of musical structures differently from musicians who do not interact with music structure in such a way. As such, an EEG experiment was conducted to investigate this relationship. Forty-one musicians performed an oddball task where they listened to 3-chord chord progressions, responding to any and all oddball chord progressions on a computer keyboard. The middle chord could be an exemplar oddball (an inversion of standard chord) or a functional oddball (a different class from the standard chord). The results found that musicians with more improvisational experience produced a greater response to functional deviants, indicating that improvisation experience plays a role in what category of structural information is more prevalent to the musician. These results were consistent across behavioral and neural measures, which were also correlated with one another. Chapters 1 and 2 provide background on music structure, improvisation, neuroscience, and the intersection of the three. Chapters 3 and 4 explain the experiment and the results. Chapter 5 integrates these results into the larger questions regarding improvisation, creativity research, and considers the pragmatic applications of improvisation training. Finally, this paper proposes another study that addresses deeper questions about neural and music structural correlations.

Generations 3.1 is a musical composition for improvisers, chamber orchestra, two-channel audio playback, and video. It is part of the generations series, a collection of works in which newer pieces are made by combining and/or reinterpreting older ones. generations 3.1 uses material from generations 0 (stereo audio), generations 1.1 (audiovisual fixed media), generations 1.2 (chamber orchestra and audio playback), and generations 2.1 (video and improvisers). Formally, generations 3.1 expands the duration of its predecessors by deconstructing their shared timeline, reordering and elongating sections, as well as introducing new interludes. The experimental video of generations 3.1 was created by Timothy David Orme, while the text instructions for the improvisers were greatly influenced by my work with Wombat, an improvisation trio consisting of Justin K. Comer on saxophone, Will Yager on double bass, and myself on electric guitar and electronics. The four layers of the piece (improvisers, chamber orchestra, audio playback, and video) have distinct roles. The audio and the orchestra almost always sound together and complement each other, and they either support or create sections to contrast the improvisers. The improvisers act as soloists, playing alone or over the other musical layers, and respond to the video, observing its mood, energy, and timing. The video works as the main thread through the piece, providing a path interrupted by interludes. Its visual content is set to music by the other three layers. However, all these roles are somewhat flexible during the piece. My main goal with the generations series was to explore the process of writing works derived from older ones, reusing my own music to produce new compositions. Moreover, by collaborating with other artists, the same material can be reinterpreted through different disciplines and perspectives. The name “generations” connects the creative process that happens throughout the series to the idea of humans passing on both genetic and cultural material to their descendants. In generations 3.1, the name specifically references the different ways in which music was generated for the piece: editing electronic sounds, by means of traditional notation, and through improvisation.

In questioning the complexity of human identity, the multiplicity of the self is uniquely grounded within embodied experience. Unearthing edges : constructing gaps is the result of creative research centered on investigation of the following questions: What can practices of collaborative movement making bring to the process of illuminating, excavating, and perhaps reconciling these alternate versions of the self? In practices supporting the development of individual movement vocabularies and physical agency what can be learned of the complications of the self and identity? What can be revealed of self and community in collective movement practice and in sharing solo practice? How can improvisational work, practiced in the realm of rehearsal and performance, engage with these ideas? Through studio practice utilizing a range of methodologies, this project seeks to contend with ideas of the self, identity, alternate reality, spontaneity, empathy, agency, and community.

Thesis (D.M.A.)--University of North Texas, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references and discography.

The teaching of music improvisation is commonly approached as the process of incorporating the vocabulary of a specific style. In the university setting this is most often accomplished through the methodology of jazz. As an alternative, improvisation is also taught as an experimental or experiential endeavor influenced by the practice of free-improvisation. A third model teaches improvisation as games; this is common in the field of Music Education. Although all these methods accomplish their various purposes, in their pedagogical application none of these models focus on the most distinctive feature of improvisation: how the musician thinks. Improvisation as a way of “thinking music” constitutes a form of musical intelligence that entails a number of cognitive processes that solve specific problems unique to the improvisational setting. As an alternative to the existing models, I propose to teach improvisation as a form of intelligence, with the purpose of empowering the learner to construct a spontaneous yet intended musical discourse meaningful to the improviser and representative of his or her own understanding of musical organization. In order to advance a pedagogical model based on improvisational intelligence, I have conducted a grounded theory research project to construct a theoretical model of the cognitive processes of improvisation deployed by professional improvisers, with the intention that this model inform the teaching of improvisational intelligence. The research comprised individual interviews with 10 improvisers. The participants improvised a piece of music and subsequently elaborated on the cognitive mechanisms deployed while improvising. The resulting theory from this research proposes that improvisational intelligence consists of residual and emergent behaviors mediated by a monitoring system. The theory is illustrated by three models, and it is summarized in six postulates. The practical application of the model does not form part of this research; turning the theoretical model into a practical teaching method constitutes a subsequent stage to the current work. Nonetheless, the discussion section of the thesis elaborates on possible pedagogical applications and challenges for the professional musician as well as for various institutional settings such as the elementary school, the secondary school, the university jazz program, and the classical performance program.

Ce mémoire-création est composé de deux parties. La première est une réflexion sur la sensation comme lien entre le jeu et l'écriture. La deuxième est constituée du texte théâtral Soliloques. L'objectif de cette recherche est de réfléchir sur le transfert possible du stock de sensations qu'un acteur a accumulées par le jeu et dont il peut se servir pour l'écriture. Cette réflexion est élaborée à partir d'une expérimentation: une série d'improvisations solos filmées dans huit lieux non théâtraux, comme première étape de récriture d'un texte dramatique. La partie réflexion de ce mémoire expose d'abord certaines théories du jeu développées par Constantin Stanislavski, Michael Checkhov et Lee Strasberg, afin de réfléchir au rôle de la sensation dans le jeu de l'acteur. Quelques écrits sur la sensation comme source d'inspiration en danse et en écriture poétique ajoutent à la réflexion. Ensuite, le rapport entre le corps du créateur et son environnement est analysé à partir des travaux de Richard Schechner aux Etats-Unis et de la pratique du metteur en scène québécois Éric Jean. Puis, les enseignements de Checkhov et de Strasberg sur la mémoire sensorielle sont exposés pour expliquer le passage de la sensation du jeu (improvisations) à l'écriture de Soliloques. Les écrits de ces auteurs et praticiens constituent le cadre théorique de ce mémoire. Le dernier chapitre de la partie réflexion explique comment la sensation a été abordée et traitée dans le travail de l'actrice et comment elle se transpose dans l'écriture. Cette analyse permet d'identifier, de définir et de justifier tes sensations qui ont traversé tes différentes étapes du processus d'écriture, des improvisations jusqu'à la dernière version de Soliloques. Ce mémoire conclut que les sensations constituent une puissante source d'inspiration pour la création en état de jeu et pour l'écriture. La mémoire sensorielle permet d'inspirer l'actrice-auteure pendant tout le processus de création, en plus d'agir comme le lien entre le jeu à l'écriture. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Sensations, Mémoire sensorielle, Corps, Lieu réel, Improvisation, Théorie du jeu, Écriture dramatique et soliloque.

Actuellement, aucune recherche théâtrale approfondie ne traite précisément de la structure dramatique inhérente, prémisse de base de la création en direct. Malgré la rareté d'une documentation pertinente, notre but consistait à obtenir des résultats scéniques probants pour le praticien soliste en présence d'un public par la transmutation de sa structure dramatique inhérente en œuvre d'art théâtrale. Pour ce faire, il nous a fallu clarifier les fondements de la création en direct, aborder les notions de jeu et de création, puis préciser la tâche du créateur. Inspirés par les témoignages de créateurs, d'experts en improvisation et de spécialistes en théâtre, nous avons cherché à favoriser l'abandon complet du créateur à sa structure dramatique inhérente en nous intéressant aux résistances pouvant entraver sa pleine représentation. Dans le premier chapitre nous abordons la théorie de la création en direct et de la structure dramatique inhérente en se basant sur les propos de Michel Chapdelaine, de Paul Diel et de Gaston Bachelard. Concernant la création, nous nous référons à Marie Chouinard, René Passeron, Christian Harrel-Courtès, Anton Ehrenzweig et Hans-Georg Gadamer. En rapprochant le rêve nocturne de notre démarche, nous nous appuyons sur les théories de Freud, Jung et des psychanalystes Lacan, Laplanche et Pontalis. Aussi, nous nous intéressons aux démarches de Brook et d'Artaud comme à différents arts d'improvisation non-théâtraux libérés des cadres usuels et contraignants tels que l'improvisation musicale (Patrick Scheyder), le free jazz (John Litweiler, Yves Sportis), la calligraphie chinoise traditionnelle (Fabienne Verdier), la démarche de Picasso (Gyula Halasz), le surréalisme (André Breton) et la danse-improvisation (Julyen Hamilton) dont les principes s'apparentent à notre démarche d'improvisation libre. Le deuxième chapitre permet de cerner la tâche ludique du créateur en se référant notamment à Chapdelaine, Gadamer et Bachelard. Les psychanalystes Freud, Chemama et Le Guen éclairent notre compréhension des résistances pour faciliter l'identification de leurs causes et manifestations. La recherche nous incite à conclure que les résistances sont toujours présentes dans la création. Exploitées au plan théâtral elles deviennent sources de création. Toutefois, l'attention accordée ici aux résistances aurait thématiquement orienté les créations publiques gênant, à certains moments, la libre représentation de la structure dramatique inhérente. Enfin, si la création en direct présente une structure naturellement fragmentée, l'abandon de la créatrice à sa structure dramatique inhérente ne semble pas actuellement suffire à produire la cohérence dramatique souhaitée et requerrait un travail plus spécifique de cet aspect. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Structure dramatique inhérente, création, improvisation, résistance, instant présent.

<p>Bilaga: 1 CD</p>

This essay is an attempt to scrutinize dance improvisation in terms of Aristotle’s concept of the practical knowledge phronesis. By remembering and reflecting upon lessons and my own practical knowledge and experience as a teacher in the subject of dance improvisation, I want to examine the ability to improvise as the dance students´ phronesis. Awareness, spontaneity and intuition are vital elements for the comprehension of phronesis and even represented in the basis training in dance improvisation. During the contemplation I have used philosophical books and texts mainly about practical knowledge, intuition and reflection.

No description available.