Creativity in music Flashcards

1
Q

What is creativity?

A
  • novely/ originality
    -Effectiveness and utility, has to be original but also have value
    surprise/ unpredictableness
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

Creativity in psychology

A
  • the cognitive process involved in creative production

- individual differences in creative ability

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

Creativity in music

A
  • Individual composers producing work

- more recently- recordings of new music, studios and technology

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Simonton 1980?

A
  • The originality test- investigated 10 major composers and analysed melodic originality
  • most successful composers had the most unusual combination of notes
  • “biographical stressors”- stress periods in life effected production- biographical stressors led to more original work
  • composers ‘tailed off’ towards the end of their lives- ran out of originality, got complacent
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

The swan song phenomenon

A
  • Contradicts the originality test- which found a linear trend of a drop in originality
  • “people go out with a bang”
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

Originality in popular music

A

Pre 1960’s- teams of songwriters behind the scenes, originality was a product of the songwriters
Post 1960’s- the star usually songwrites and produces, expresses their own creativity

Tribute bands; different sort of creativity, authenticy reproduction

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

Guilford- divergent thinking

A
  • Brick test used to test creativity

- list uses for a brick- to be creative they should be novel and useful

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

Sowdon et al (2015)

A

Dual processing model- two ways of achieving creative thinking
Type 1: unconscious knowledge, inspiration, flashes of insight ie Mozart
Type 2: Methodical and Systematic, conscious process ie Beethoven
Sowden argued that you have to have both types

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

Sloboda- enquiring compositional process

A

Identified 4 ways of enquiring compositional process:

  1. Archival material- Sketchbooks etc
  2. Accounts: Interviewes, biography
  3. Observation: Observing composers at work- rare
  4. Improvisation- Usually in Jazz
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

How important is expertise to creativity?

A

Ericson argued the importance of practice

Simonton studied 911 operas, with 59 composers
- looked at success of the composers
Findings: domain expertise of composer could explain 15-20% of the variance in success
- he found the same inverted J as simonton- decline in success
OVERALL: composers who rote lots of operas were more successful

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

Triangular theory

A
  • context is important when thinking about creative output
  • Argues about defiance, three functions of defiance:
    1. Against the crowd- friends family and fans
    2. Against the self- creative people tend to be versatile
    3. Against dominant paradigm- general tradition
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

Criticism of triangular theory

A

Thinks of creativity as being a single person against the world

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

Systems model of creativity

A
  • part of a board system, a habitus
  • songwriters are immersed in a musical environment
  • media imposes constraints and opportunities to creative thinking- immersed in charts, trends
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

Beatles “yesterday” and the dual processing model

A
  • McCarthy claimed that the tune was part of a flash of inspiration- Mozart style (type 2)
  • researchers has identified that he has been subconsciously been inspired by certain stimuli
  • Lyrics to the song were worked on- part 1 of dual processing
    criticism of dual process:
    Beyond the dual process model, McCarthy had other stuff in the background that enhanced creativity
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Creative performance

A
  • in performance, creativity is defined by expressive variation
  • study of 7 repeats of baths concerto, pianist claimed to perform the same every time but there were slight changes between songs
  • third performance was the best
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

Music creativity from around the world

A

South African study- look at the variation of communal singing from one time to another- rather than producing new songs they just change harmony
Brazil study- songs inspired by ancestral spirit, constrained to the habitus. If your spirit was a tree you would sing about a tree- systems model
Peru study- wrote songs by committee, team effort

17
Q

Collective creativity

A

Central controller in a group improvisation, usually the orchestra conductor. 15% ppl don’t even look at conductor