Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/10922
Title: Composition is not research
Authors: Croft, J
Keywords: Composition of music;Research;Music;Research funding
Issue Date: 2015
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Citation: Tempo, 69(272): 6 - 11, (April 2015)
Abstract: Composers in academic institutions are increasingly required to describe their activities in terms of 'research ' - formulating 'research questions', 'research narratives', 'aims' and 'outcomes'. Research plans and funding applications require one to specify the nature of the original contribution that will be made by a piece of music, even before it is composed. These requirements lead to an emphasis on collaborative work, technology and superficial novelty of format. Yet the very idea that musical composition is a form of research is a category error: music is a domain of thought whose cognitive dimension lies in embodiment, revelation or presentation, but not in investigation and description. It is argued here that the idea of composition as research is not only objectively false but inimical to genuine musical originality.
Description: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015
URI: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9650899&fileId=S0040298214000989
http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/10922
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0040298214000989
ISSN: 0040-2982
Appears in Collections:Dept of Arts and Humanities Research Papers

Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormat 
Fulltext.pdf86.58 kBAdobe PDFView/Open


Items in BURA are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.