Tacit Knowing in Musical Composition Process

This project examines the musical composition working process with regard to the role played by practical artistic knowledge, specifically in art music. The goal is to identify and analyse the cognitive as well as physically anchored knowledge components with which composers cope with various artistic, technical, organisational and emotional challenges. The term tacit knowing used in the project title indicates a particular focus on the practical, experience-based knowledge that constitutes individual competency and agency. The project follows a mainly sociological approach (art and knowledge sociology) and further integrates theoretical (practice theory, epistemology of praxis) and musicological (music analysis, sketch research) insights. The research team consists of five people with competencies in music sociology, theory of tacit knowing and musicology. The research approach is qualitatively empirical; the questions are generated based on the theory of tacit knowing. The data collection concentrates on documenting composing practices in actu (five case studies) and the project analyses these practices comprehensively, i.e. from the first idea to the last revision.

There are many musicological studies on biographies of composers or individual musical works. The creative process itself, however, remains surprisingly rather unexplored. What are composers actually doing when they are working? With whom do they cooperate and to whom do they talk if they need advice? How do they cope with artistic, technical, emotional, and organizational and musical challenges? A group of researchers at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts addressed these issues for over two years, seeking to identify the various forms of knowledge inherent in the composition process. The term knowledge should be understood in a plural sense. Besides expertise on composition techniques, the pitch range of instruments, their use in certain musical traditions and so on, composers acquire and incorporate a wide range of different forms of knowledge that are by nature non-propositional but practical. Therefore they cannot be found in books or be taught in a formal academic context. As the term tacit knowing implies, their artistic practice is essentially based on practical, sensory and experiential knowledge. For instance, this knowledge is represented by the intuitive feeling for the right musical idea, by an emotional assurance about the musical quality of a sound, or by tactile skills to handle a small sound mixer just by feeling the buttons and without any need to look at them.Composition processes are characterized by explorative approaches, e.g. playing around and trying things out. These actions are accompanied by an auditive-musical understanding of the outcomes that initiates new experiments and further work steps. Additionally, implicit valuations take place throughout the whole composition process. It is precisely these characteristics of action that reveal composers tacit knowing. Their compositional ability is represented in a skilful creative action, constituted by the synergetic interplay of corporeal, cognitive, and situational forms of knowing. Finally, composers are not isolated individuals working alone, as they rely on the knowledge of many different peers. Composition processes take place in a cooperative network of musicians, purchasers and other composers. This network is built on a cultural knowledge shared by the participants. Such shared knowledge becomes effective for instance during rehearsals, when composers explain their musical intentions to musicians via metaphors and analogies. Composers often seek cooperation with musicians during the creation process in order to get to know particular playing techniques, or to make sure that a passage is playable at all. Such interactions and exchanges generate new knowledge that among other factors promotes the individual artistic development as well as the transformation of compositional practices.The results of this research project have already been published in a German monograph in 2016 (see Zembylas, T./Niederauer, M., Praktiken des Komponierens: Soziologische, wissenstheoretische und musikwissenschaftliche Perspektiven, Wiesbaden: Springer-VS). An English monograph will be published in 2017 (see Zembylas, T./Niederauer, M., Composing Processes and Artistic Agency: Tacit Knowledge in Composing, London: Routledge.)