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One key area that has been largely neglected in research and development into electroacoustic
music composition systems and tools is support for composers' creativity, as opposed to audio
processing mechanisms by which creative ideas are realized. Our aim is therefore to seek a basis
for adding "depth" to composition software, such that it provides a more fertile environment
within which creativity is likely to occur. In this paper we overview methodological issues
relating to establishing a research basis for creating such composition software. Specifically, the
paper considers the nature of the research problem from both classical and qualitative research
perspectives. Previous related work is critically reviewed and the main conclusions we draw are
that the significance of existing results are limited because of the lack of a constructivist approach
to researching composition within naturalistic settings, and a focus on musicology and education
to the exclusion of software consideration. This will inevitably involve an engagement with
cultural issues of electroacoustic music. In light of these conclusions, the paper then discusses
methodology options and experimental design for analysis of the composition process and
creativity related issues in particular. We conclude by detailing the research design for our ongoing
experiments with composers, and present an interim snapshot of actual research carried out. This
investigation is preliminary to deriving research-based requirements for enhanced composition
software, which we will prototype and evaluate in the future stage of our research. We also view
electroacoustic music composition as a rich instance of the creative process, and thus aim to derive
general techniques for improved software support for creative individuals.
1 Introduction
Electroacoustic music composition tools and systems
selectively attempt to provide composers with
services they require for music generation, e.g., for
accessing, generating, organising and manipulating
audio (and other) objects, which constitute the
composition. However, a primary aim of composition
software also is to create conditions in which
composers can be creative in the use of these services.
The evolution of composition software with respect
to the former requirements has been dynamic and
innovative, stimulated by continuing development of
new programming and audio synthesis paradigms and
techniques. However, we believe that the aim of
providing a fertile environment for creativity has been
largely ignored. Specifically, we believe there to be a
need to establish a research base for enhancement of
support within composition software for creativity.
This begs the two questions addressed by this paper,
do research results exist already that can provide an
effective research base, and if not, how should such
research be conducted?
Accordingly, this paper explores the following issues
relating to software support for creativity in
electroacoustic composition. What is the nature of the
problem? What research already exists which can help
in solving this problem? The main contribution is a
discussion in which we bring together the reviews of
3 Related Work
Research into software support for creativity in
electroacoustic (timbre-based) music composition is a
largely neglected area. The few articles that do
contribute to this area of study are discussed later in
this section.
However, there is a small, but more substantial body
of research into the composition process for
conventional (pitch-based) composition, largely from
a musicological or educational perspective. An
excellent and comprehensive review of this work is
given in Collins (2001). Collins identifies four
theoretical perspectives taken in this work: stage
theory; emerging-systems theory; informationprocessing theory; and Gestalt theory. Stage theories
model the composition as a staged process, e.g.,
preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification
(Wallas, 1926), and mainly rely on biographical or
autobiographical material. Thus, this approach is
usually dependent upon after the event
4 Methodological issues
The preceding review has highlighted that, although
there exists research into the composition process,
this largely fails to address the problems of how it is
best supported by software. Hence, there is a need for
further studies of composition, but from a software
development perspective. This in turn begs the
question, how should such studies best be conducted?
In general, lack of knowledge, which necessitates the
conduct of research, may arguably be thought of as a
curtain preventing us from viewing the reality beyond
or (if we do not accept such an objective notion of
reality) the relativistic perceptual and conceptual
constructions that we seek to understand. Our
knowledge may range between two extremes, which
to some extent map broadly onto so-called
quantitative and qualitative research approaches
(we use these terms as shorthand for complex clusters
of
often-associated
research
parameters,
acknowledging that to do so risks oversimplification). Once knowledge, which establishes
the nature of the problem, is in place, further
engineering approaches then become appropriate for
invention of technological solutions. These tend to
fall into the modeling and empirical research
categories. In the current situation our concern is
primarily to elicit knowledge of composition, the
invention phase being a future aspiration.
There are two further aspects to the problem of
acquiring new knowledge: how does one understand
the instance, and how does one gain generic
knowledge? Quantitative approaches may be thought
of as scattered pinpricks in the curtain, allowing clear
and deep, but narrow and unconnected views through
to the reality (or relativistic constructions) beyond.
This limitation stems from the fact that much
quantitative research is based only upon that which is
controllable and measurable, and thus omits, for
example, the complex human dimension. Thus, in
the music domain, quantitative approaches may
establish simplistic generalisations on composition
6.2 Evaluation
The following subsection will summarize and
evaluate the practical implications regarding the study
of our first pair of composers.
In order to stay true to our naturalistic objective, the
composers were involved in defining the situation
within which they worked. In particular, we adopted
their request to work on separate computers for the
most part of the composition process, the
consequences of which will be implied by the
following discussion.
The working process between the two composers,
from now on referred to as Richard and Martin, went
extremely smoothly and both assured the researcher
that they felt the situation was pretty natural. They
didnt feel they were taking part in a scientific
experiment, but rather experiencing an intense, but
enjoyable situation.
They stated that even though there wasnt much
verbal exchange, they had a fair amount of exchange
by listening to each others sonic output and also via
the Ethernet file exchange.
When they were asked about the lack of verbal
exchange, Richard stated that the main reasons were,
the intensity of the working process and the worry
not to interfere with his colleagues flow of
composing. This being the first time the two
composers had worked together, he compared the
situation to being on a first date where one feels
slightly awkward and is on ones best behavior.
Again, Richard assured us that the presence of the
researcher didnt really bother him, because he
regularly performs in front of people anyway.
The verbal exchange increased drastically as soon as
the composers worked on the final phase of the
composition day, which was the arranging and
editing of the final outcome on one shared computer.
As became apparent during the composition task as
well as in the reflective interview, the time restriction
of one day, was initially an exciting challenge for the
6 Conclusions
In this paper we have identified the need for a research
base for enhancement of electroacoustic music
composition software, such that creativity is better
supported, and discussed how this research should be
conducted. Weaknesses of most related studies of
conventional (pitch-based) composition have been the
reliance on after the evant introspections and
observations of composition, or experimental data
collected from unnatural settings through over
simplistic composition exercises, involving nonexpert composers. Further, these have been from
educational and musicological perspectives, and have
not addressed software requirements. The procedural
explanations derived in this work fail to provide a
realistic basis for software support, since this should
be enabling, rather than prescriptive. We therefore
identified a need for future research into
electroacoustic music composition involving expert
composers in naturalistic settings, possibly taking a
Gestalt perspective.
Further, we argue that, given the preliminary stage of
this research, initially a qualitative research approach
should be taken, in order to identify sensitizing
concepts which will more clearly establish the
parameters of the problem and methods that should
be used. We then envisage a second phase, in which
both qualitative and quantitative methods will be
7 Acknowledgments
This ongoing research has been partly funded by the
Mosart
Research
Network
programme
.(http://www.diku.dk/research-groups/musinf/
MOSART.html), funded under the EU Framework 5
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