Developing Musical Creativity: the Singapore Young Composers' Project as a Case-study

Abstract

Education and the arts are growth areas in Singapore and their interface presents interesting research opportunities for music education. This paper outlines a study of the development of composition within music education in Singapore, describing action research together with two case profiles. These findings are aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the strategies adopted, learning about students' musical decision-making and seeing how creative approaches can enhance music learning. Part 1 of the paper outlines the Project, its background and its operation from 1993-1995. The changing nature of the Project is documented, showing its development in response to need. Part 2 consists of case profiles of two participants.

Whilst the Project and the evaluatory research continue, some meaningful conclusions can be drawn, including that the Project needs to allow for wide-ranging ability with some participants aspiring to the level of professional composers; that the group-work and ensemble-playing dimensions fulfil a major need; and that individuals can meet their differing needs from this approach, as the case profiles demonstrate. A refined, three-year project design resulted from these conclusions, attempting to balance group work with the emerging individual need for closer, more personal, guidance. Future research will explore how successful this design has been in meeting those needs.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bogdan, R.C. , & Biklen, S.K. (1992). Qualitative research for education: an introduction to theory & methods. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Bunting, R. (1988). Composing music: Case studies in the teaching and learning process. British Journal of Music Education, 5, 269-310.

Burnard, P. (1995). Task design and experience in composition. Research Studies in Music Education, 5, 32-46.

Csikszentmihaly, M. and Getzels, J.W. (1973). The personality of young artists: An empirical and theoretical exploration. British Journal of Psychology , 64, 91-104.

Cross, P. , Cattell, R.B. , & Butcher, H.J. (1967). The personality pattern of creative artists. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 37, 292-9.

Getzels, J.W. , & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1976). The creative vision: A longitudinal study of problem finding in art. New York : Wiley.

Howard J. (1990). Learning to Compose. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.

Howard J. (1993a). Unpublished material for the 1993 Young Composers' Project.

Howard J. (1993b). Unpublished handbook for the 1993 Young Composers' Project.

10.

Howard J. (1994). Unpublished material for the 1994 Young Composers' Project.

11.

Howard J. (1995a). Performing & Responding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

12.

Howard J. (1995b). Unpublished material for the 1995 Young Composers' Project.

13.

Kemp, A.E. (1981a). The personality structure of the musician: I. Identifying a profile of traits for the performer. Psychology of Music, 9, 3-14

14.

Kemp, A.E. (1981b). The personality structure of the musician: II. Identifying a profile of traits for the composer. Psychology of Music, 9, 69-75.

15.

Lincoln, Y.S. , & Guba, E.G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

16.

Martin, J. (1996) A qualitative study of the musical thinking and decision making behaviour of Singaporean music students learning to compose . Unpublished MA thesis, Nanyang Technological University , Singapore.

17.

Ministry of Education (1992). Music Syllabus (Primary). Curriculum Planning Division, Ministry of Education: Singapore.

18.

Ministry of Education (1993). Music Syllabus (Secondary). Curriculum Planning Division, Ministry of Education: Singapore.

19.

Ministry of Information and the Arts (1994 ). Singapore Facts & Pictures. Ministry of Information and the Arts: Singapore.

20.

Patton, M.Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation & research methods . Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

21.

van Ernst, B. (1993). A study of the learning and teaching processes of non-naive music students engaged in composition. Research Studies in Music Education 1, 22-39.