ABSTRACT
In Comparative Music Perception and Cognition , Carterette and Kendall (1999) defi ne music as “temporally organized sound and silence that is areferentially communicative within a context . . . music qua music (as intentionally organized sound)” (726). If understood as a cognitive and performative causality, however, the embodiment of musical creativity also suggests a formative multimodal synergy between the conceptualization and contextualization of creative activities. In particular, in addition to the embodiment of the compositional process (see Chapter 4 ), the reciprocity of creative cognition and performativity also contributes to the emergence of embodied knowledge. As I have also discussed throughout the book, the method by which composers engage in the compositional process by embracing the personal and collective, and the individual and social, aspects of their creative practice also impacts the act of musical composition by contributing to the formation of embodied musical structure and pedagogy. Seen here as a cognitively informed approach to the study of music resulting in musical structures and training of “causal infl uences” (Pearl 2000, 42), in this fi nal part of the book I will discuss the formation of the cognitive and perceptual relationships between the conceptualization and contextualization of compositional creativity. In this way I will embark on the quest for the integrative approach to music theory and education, in part to justify my theoretical stance towards my own theoretical and teaching practices, but most importantly, in an effort to build a bridge between new and emerging musical structures, teaching and learning methods, and enduring yet evolving psychological processes. As Erickson (1982) puts it, “[T]he need for musical context is here, in the suggestion of cooperation between composers and psychologists” (519). I believe this type of teamwork seems to be of signifi cant relevance to our ongoing exploration of the conceptualization and contextualization of musical creativity.
