Document Type
Article
Abstract
In order to create democratic milieus for creative musical group work, relations between individuals and the musical world should be investigated. One way of coming close to the interaction between subjects and music in such environments is to use philosophy as a tool for understanding. In the current article the philosophy of flesh and chiasm as developed by Merleau-Ponty in his later works, is used to acquire knowledge about cooperative composition. Chiasm means criss-crossings between the perceiving and the perceived, self and other, and language and meaning. The aim of the study was to describe and understand the phenomenon of cooperative composing from a pupil's point of view. The experiences of five 15-year-old pupils involved in a New music project constitute the access to the phenomenon. Themes that describe the phenomenon of cooperative composing showed to be: To embody new areas, Intertwinement of ideas, The function of language and symbols in chiasmic communication, Challenges and wonders, and To grow into the field of contemporary composition.
Repository Citation
Thorgersen, Cecilia F.. "Lose Control, Listen to Each Other, and Create - Understanding Cooperative Music Making from a Chiasmatic Perspective." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 14, no. 2, 2014, pp. 1–18. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol14/iss2/6