Page 18 - Composing Processes and Artistic Agency

Introduction 7

inductive nor a purely deductive analysis. We analysed the material carefully
so as to maintain an open mind. Our final interpretation, which also con-
tained comparisons and contrasts of the case studies, concentrated on retain-
ing and reproducing the phenomenal variety of composing practices, not on
abstractions that could be used as definitions (see Geertz 1973: 24f.).
Our approach to the composers certainly influenced the way we handled
the empirical material. Since we regarded experienced composers as competent
practitioners and informants with detailed knowledge about composing pro-
cesses, we treated their statements with a high level of trust and understood
their reflective practices as a form of research. Simultaneously, however, we
had to take into account that they described options and experiences accord-
ing to socially shared discursive patterns of representation and interpretation
(see Donin 2015). We treated information from composers about intertextual
references, evaluations, work phases, emotions and wishes as being beyond
classification into “subjective” versus “objective” because they are developed,
modified and validated by concretely cooperating with others, and participating
in a publicly accessible and collective polymorphic musical practice.
This approach is also reflected in the tension between our scientific self-
confidence – based on professional research experience – and a scepticism
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concerning our own concepts and assumptions. After we had concluded the
phase of data collection, we therefore contacted individual composers and
other specialist colleagues and discussed our interpretation with them. This
strategy, requiring relationships built on trust and a reciprocal appreciation of
the various competences, enabled us – we hope and believe – to maintain a
rewarding circular reflexivity.

Overview of chapters
The first chapter, entitled “The Topography of Composing Work”, discusses
the great variety of relationships between people, artefacts and resources that
characterise contemporary composing practices. Its analytical focus is on the
predetermined parameters (place and date of performance, length of compo-
sition, ensemble), the amount of work time available and the place of work,
informal exchange and formal collaboration with other musicians as well as
the role of material objects (writing utensils, musical instruments, computers,
technical apparatuses) and immaterial objects (notation systems, algorithms,
aesthetic discourses). The interplay between these aspects varies from case to
case, so that each composing process represents a particular set of circum-
stances. This chapter nonetheless asserts that, in western contemporary art
music, there are generalisable westernised composing practices. Composing is
preconditionally dependent on participating in a shared musical practice,
exchanging knowledge with other people, and learning a skilful use of material
and immaterial objects.
The second chapter, “The Processuality of Composing”, takes a temporal
approach and asks the following questions: what do composers do while