Utifrån min egen skolgång och känslan av att musikskapande aktiviteter bortprioriterats för att skapa utrymme för sådana moment som ger ”mest kunskap” har jag med denna studie valt att undersöka just användandet av musikskapande aktiviteter i grundskolans musikundervisning. Den tidigare forskning som lyfts fram visar att kreativa arbetssätt och skapande aktiviteter främjar elevers musikaliska kunskaper och sociala färdigheter. Trots detta visar statliga utvärderingar av musikämnet att musikskapande aktiviteter är eftersatt på många skolor i landet samt att musiklärare saknar självförtroende och kompetens att undervisa i momentet. Genom en webbenkät som datainsamlingsmetod syftar föreliggande studie till att studera musiklärares arbete med musikskapande aktiviteter. Forskningsfrågorna som ligger till grund för arbetet berör musiklärares definition av musikskapande aktiviteter, attityd till och prioritering av momentet samt eventuella samband mellan olika faktorer och användandet av musikskapande aktiviteter i undervisning. Metodmässigt tar studien en medelväg och med avstamp i ett explorativt perspektiv kan studien anses ha sin grund i den kvantitativa ansatsen tillsammans med vissa kvalitativa tolkande inslag. Resultatet av studien visar att de medverkande informanterna har en övervägande positiv attityd till musikskapande aktiviteter samt enligt sin egen uppfattning prioriterar momentet i relativt hög grad i sin undervisning. Musikskapande som komposition, musikskapande som digital produktion och musikskapande som gestaltande kommunikation är tre övergripande innebörder av begreppet musikskapande som framträder ur resultatet, dock anser många informanter att begreppet är svårdefinierat och att det snarare är ett sammanfattande begrepp för flera moment i undervisningen. Ytterligare resultat visar att faktorer som kön, yrkeserfarenhet, attityder och vilken del av landet informanten undervisar i pekar på tydliga samband i förhållande till attityd och prioritering av musikskapande aktiviteter. Avslutningsvis förs en diskussion kring studiens resultat och huruvida musikskapande aktiviteter bör ses som ett genomsyrande förhållningssätt i musikundervisningen snarare än ett enskilt moment. / Based on my own schooling and the feeling that music-creating activities have been de-prioritized to create space for elements of music that provides "the most knowledge", I have with this study chosen to investigate the use of music-creating activities in primary school music education. Previous research that highlights shows that creative thinking and creative activities promote students' musical knowledge and social skills. Despite this, evaluations of Swedish music education shows that music-creating activities are neglected in many schools and that music teachers lack the self-confidence and competence to teach the element. Through a web survey as a collection method of data, this essay aims to study music teachers’ usage of music-creating activities in their practice. The research questions that form the basis of the study concern music teachers' definition of music-creating activities, attitudes to and inclusion of the element and possible connections between different factors. Methodologically, the study takes a middle ground and with a starting point in an exploratory perspective the study is considered to have its basis in the quantitative approach together with certain qualitative interpretive elements. The result of the study shows that the participating informants have a predominantly positive attitude towards music-creating activities as well as recurring use of it in their teaching. Music creation as composition, music creation as digital production and music creation as formative communication are three main definitions of the concept of music creation that emerges from the survey answers, however, many informants believe that the concept is difficult to define and that it is rather a summary concept for several moments in teaching. Further results show that factors such as gender, professional experience, attitude and which part of the country the informants teach point to clear connections in relation to the use of music-creating activities. Finally, there is a discussion about the results of the study and whether music-creating activities should be seen as a permeating approach in music teaching rather than an individual element.

The early-twentieth-century culture in western art music of idolizing the composer as the autonomous creative genius has been challenged by recent developments across musicology and creativity research literature. The composer’s music is now regarded as the product of a collaborative network, influenced by all who come into contact with it—first and foremost the performer. Yet, the nature of the performer’s creative impact on the compositional process remains under-explored. This thesis is centred on a qualitative artistic research project, designed to identify and critically evaluate the prospective extent and scope of creative performer agency; it aims to ascertain how a typical lack of familiarity with the instrument may affect the composer’s creative practice, and to reveal key factors that shape the nature and the consequences of composer-performer interaction and collaboration. It proceeds by commissioning new works for guitar from a range of composers for different performers, and by documenting and analysing the processes of collaboration that result. This research agenda challenges the perception of distinct creative roles that remains resilient in present-day cultural understandings and discourse. The findings are intended to broaden understanding of contemporary collaborative practices in the compositional process for the guitar and generalize to the guitar repertoire of the long twentieth century, during which the majority of substantial works were composed in collaboration. The thesis also contributes to a developing and generalizable framework of practice-led research literature that analyses music-making by recognizing the multiple loci and their interactions that underpin all aspects of the creative processes. Chapter 1 discusses the establishment of the creative hegemony of the composer and its opposing currents across disciplines from the late romantic period to the late twentieth century. Chapter 2 comprises an indicative chronology of select collaborations in the long twentieth-century guitar repertoire and an overview of relevant practice-led research projects in performance studies. Ethnographic methodologies are reviewed in Chapter 3 and the fieldwork commissions are analysed in Chapters 4 and 5. Finally, Chapter 6 comprises an evaluation of the performer’s creative agency and its significance when placed in broader frameworks of contemporary guitar practices, contemporary composition across instrumentations, generalizing to historical guitar collaboration and its implications for creativity research.

This thesis describes how I took part in a series of collaborations with dancers Danai Pappa and Katie Hall, musician George Williams and video artist Julie Kuzminska. To realise our collaborations, I built electronic sculptural instruments from junk using bricolage, the act of subversion, skip diving and appropriation. From an auto-ethnographic viewpoint, I explored how collaborations began, how relationships developed and how various levels of expertise across different disciplines were negotiated. I examined how the documentation of the performances related to, and could be realised as, video art in their own right. I investigated the themes of work, labour and effort that are used in the process of producing and documenting these works in order to better understand how to ‘create’. I analysed the gender dynamics that existed between my collaborators and myself, which led to the exploration of issues around interaction and intimacy, democratic roles and live art. The resulting works challenged gender stereotypes, the notion of what a musical instrument can be and how sound is produced through action/interaction. I found that reflective time was imperative; serendipity, constant awareness of one’s environment, community and intimate relationships greatly enhanced the success of the collaborations. Instruments became conduits and instigators with shifting implied genders based on their context or creative use. As well as sound being a product of movement, effort and interaction, I realised it was also an artefact of the instruments.