ABSTRACT
As a rapidly expanding area of research in psychology, philosophy, and cognitive sciences, the study of the embodied mind is fi nding its application in the creative arts (Scarinzi 2015). To what extent may these characteristics of embodiment be applicable to the compositional process, to the very act of conceiving and crafting a piece of music? In Chapter 4 I argue that when creating musical works, composers draw equally on aspects of the body (perception and physical manifestation) in shaping those aspects of cognition (conception and mental representation). According to Clark (2008), the cognitive processes and actions, such as those of composing music, are in fact extending the composer’s mind (76). The embodied act of composition is thus not merely a collection of tools, techniques, and procedures. Rather, the embodiment of the compositional process calls for an inclusive thesis of the embodied – and in our case, also the extended – mind: “when parts of the environment are coupled to the brain in the right way, they become parts of the mind” (Chalmers 2010a, 1). Examining what takes place at this intersection of our bodies and our senses is thus critical, given the multimodal nature of musical creativity as discussed in Part I. With respect to the model of embodiment of musical creativity defi ned in Chapter 2 , it is important to remember the multidimensionality of creative modalities and creative processes responsible for the formation of cognitive and perceptual interrelations. Contributing to the reciprocity of cognitive and performative factors within compositional creativity, in this chapter I take up the pragmatic relationship between the creative act of musical composition and embodiment. I believe that this new analytical approach will offer a creative paradigm by which the compositional process itself suggests insights into the embodiment of musical creativity, becoming “a complex interaction between [our] intellect and [our] whole being” (Saariaho 2011, 12).
