Page 97 - Composing Processes and Artistic Agency

86 Orchestrating different forms of knowledge

The primacy of sensory and situative experience does not negate the
importance of the reflexive, discursive and intellectual components of com-
posing. Perceptual judgements are preconditionally dependent on a certain
practical, cultural and epistemic background (see Schatzki, Knorr-Cetina &
von Savigny 2001: 2f.; Nicolini 2011). And yet such judgements are formed
spontaneously and intuitively –“you can hear it”, “you can feel it”– and not
primarily through analysis or reflection. If they were, composers would be
able to justify them (see Polanyi 1966; Standish 2015). The sense of touch in
the composer’s fingers, his or her sensitive ears and other sense organs are
valuing “agents” to which he or she refers to gain practical certainty. The
knowledge of fingers and ears is mute, and, as a rule, only becomes discursive to
any extent in situations where composers convey or justify themselves – in
other words, with explicit reference to music-theory or aesthetic aspects of
their work. However, the ability to explain what you are hearing or doing and
to justify why you have done something is quite different from the ability to
compose itself – otherwise, musicologists and music theorists would be the
best composers.
“Trying out” is the central verb here. It is the entry-point into exploratory
experiences and generates knowing-in-action. Certain insights and solutions
are only made possible experimentally, through playing around. All of the
composers we interviewed talked of trying out and playing around. The
following are just two examples of many:

Playing around can just be a form of trying-out. Where I try out different
constellations of material. […] But in any case, when I play around, it’s
usually on the computer. I’ll have some material and try to vary it in
different ways or put it into new constellations.
(Marko Ciciliani)

It took me a long time to find the range where the voice can be slowed
down or speeded up. I mean, I really tried for a long time. If I slow down
the voice by 50%, it sounds totally unnatural [speaks slowly]. When I
make it faster [speaks fast], it’s stupid as well. I really tried out lots of
things, and I worked out that 70% is too much, but 75%, well, it fits like a
glove. Same thing for the accelerated voice. I just experimented with it for
a really long time, till I got the impression those are my limit values, and
they’re acceptable.
(Karlheinz Essl)

3
Trying-out expresses a situative and abductive method not guided by
principles that is typical for artistic creative processes (see Zembylas & Dürr
2009: 104ff.; Bassetti 2014: 95ff.; Trajtenberg 2014: 172ff.). The knowledge
that derives from this method is linked to the person who does the trying-out
in a specific situation and perceives the results with his or her senses. During
trying-out, reflection is not switched off, but neither does it guide or monitor