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Collaboration and the Practitioner-Researcher: A Composer’s Perspective

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Artistic Research in Performance through Collaboration

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Abstract

This chapter examines my collaboration with trumpeter Simon Desbruslais on a new piece for trumpet and string quartet situated within the worlds of artistic practice and academic research. The methodology used is a broadly qualitative one with a range of data from rehearsal recordings to retrospective accounts underpinning an interpretation of why the collaboration unfolded as it did. My interpretation revolves around the theme of tension existing in the artistic domain (between determinacy and indeterminacy) and between the artistic and academic research domains in attitudes to research questions and methods. I show how the collaboration was affected by such tensions and the differing degrees to which it was able to resolve them. I conclude with a discussion of the need for productive tension and the role of collaboration in maintaining the integrity of the practitioner-researcher role and realising its potential in both areas.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See, for example, Eric F. Clarke and Mark Doffman, ‘Introduction and Overview,’ in Distributed Creativity: Collaboration and improvisation in contemporary music, edited by Eric F. Clarke and Mark Doffman (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), 1–18.

  2. 2.

    Dawn Bennett, David Wright and Diana M. Blom, ‘The Artistic Practice-Research-Teaching (ART) Nexus: Translating the information flow,’ Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 7, no. 2 (2010): 1–19; Diana M. Blom, Dawn Bennett and David Wright, ‘How Artists Working in Academia View Artistic Practice as Research: Implications for tertiary music education,’ International Journal of Music Education, 29, no. 4 (2011): 359–373; Jenny Wilson, Artists in the University: Positioning artistic research in higher education (Singapore: Springer, 2018).

  3. 3.

    Tom Armstrong, Janko Calic, Simon Desbruslais, David Frohlich, Tara Knights and Haiyue Yuan, ‘Com-Note: Designing a composer’s notebook for collaborative music composition,’ in Final Paper/proceedings of the Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts Conference, edited by Anastasios Maragiannis (London: DRHA, 2015), 41–48.

  4. 4.

    Juliet Corbin and Anselm Strauss, Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (London: Sage Publications, 2008), 17.

  5. 5.

    Ibid.

  6. 6.

    Brydie-Leigh Bartleet and Carolyn Ellis, ‘Introduction,’ in Music Autoethnographies: Making auto-ethnography/making music personal, edited by Brydie-Leigh Bartleet and Carolyn Ellis, 1–20 (Australian Academic Press, 2009), 7.

  7. 7.

    Anthony Gritten, 2010. ‘Is this Collaborating? In Search of an Artistic Attitude,’ in Collision edited by Kevin Laycock (Leeds: Gallery Oldham with University of Leeds, 2010), 11. This volume is not paginated (this is a visual artist’s exhibition catalogue).

  8. 8.

    Alan Taylor, ‘Collaboration in Contemporary Music: A theoretical view,’ Contemporary Music Review, 35, no. 6 (2016): 562–578.

  9. 9.

    Sam Hayden and Luke Windsor, ‘Collaboration and the Composer: Case studies from the end of the twentieth century,’ Tempo, 61, no. 240 (2007): 28–39.

  10. 10.

    Clemens Gresser, ‘Prose Collection: The performer and listener as co-creator,’ in Changing the System: The music of Christian Wolff, edited by Stephen Chase and Philip Thomas, 193–210 (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010), 194.

  11. 11.

    Clarke and Doffman, Distributed Creativity, 2017.

  12. 12.

    Psalm. Signum Records, 2014 SIGCD403; The Art of Dancing. Signum Records, 2017 SIGCD513.

  13. 13.

    Robin Nelson, Practice as Research in the Arts: Principles, protocols, pedagogies, resistances (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).

  14. 14.

    Darla Crispin, ‘Artistic Research and Music Scholarship: Musings and models from a continental European perspective,’ in Artistic Practice as Research in Music: Theory, criticism, practice, edited by Mine Dogantan-Dack (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015), 53–72.

  15. 15.

    Wilson, Artists in the University, 2018.

  16. 16.

    Sarah Rubidge, ‘Artists in the Academy: Reflections on artistic practice as research,’ (2005). https://ausdance.org.au/articles/details/artists-in-the-academy-reflections-on-artistic-practice-as-research (last accessed 8 December, 2018).

  17. 17.

    For a discussion of collaboration in my work since 2009 see Tom Armstrong, ‘An Experimental Turn: A composer’s perspective on a changing practice,’ in Music and Sonic Art: Theories and practices, edited by John Dack and Mine Dogantan-Dack (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018), 138–158.

  18. 18.

    Rubidge, ‘Artists in the Academy,’ 2005, n.p.

  19. 19.

    Bennett et al., ‘The Artistic Practice-Research-Teaching (ART) Nexus,’ 2010, 1–19.

  20. 20.

    Crispin, ‘Artistic Research and Music Scholarship,’ 2015.

  21. 21.

    Practitioner-researchers have also commented on the benefits afforded by being members of the academic research community and working in a university environment. See Wilson, Artists in the University, 2018 chapters four and eight.

  22. 22.

    Michael Biggs and Daniella Büchler, ‘Communities, Values, Conventions and Actions,’ in The Routledge Companion to Research in the Arts, edited by Michael Biggs and Henrik Karlsson (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2010), 82–98.

  23. 23.

    Ibid.

  24. 24.

    Nicholas Cook, A Guide to Musical Analysis (London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1987), 363.

  25. 25.

    Armstrong auto-ethnography two.

  26. 26.

    ‘Dress’ rehearsal November 2013.

  27. 27.

    Allan Forte, The Structure of Atonal Music (Yale: Yale University Press, 1977).

  28. 28.

    Desbruslais auto-ethnography two.

  29. 29.

    Ibid.

  30. 30.

    Composer and Performer: An experimental turn and its consequences. Paper delivered at the Institute of Musical Research, June 2014.

  31. 31.

    Armstrong comment on Desbruslais YouTube video October 2013.

  32. 32.

    Com-Note narrative July 2013.

  33. 33.

    KCL November 2013.

  34. 34.

    Ibid.

  35. 35.

    Ibid.

  36. 36.

    Ibid.

  37. 37.

    Ibid.

  38. 38.

    Com-Note narrative July 2013.

  39. 39.

    Com-Note narrative June 2013.

  40. 40.

    ‘Dress’ rehearsal November 2013.

  41. 41.

    SHO May 2014.

  42. 42.

    Fabrice Fitch and Neil Heyde, ‘“Recercar” – The Collaborative Process as Invention,’ Twentieth Century Music, 4, no. 1 (2007): 71–95.

  43. 43.

    Bennett et al., ‘The Artistic Practice-Research-Teaching (ART) Nexus,’ 2010; Blom et al., ‘How Artists Working in Academia View Artistic Practice As Research,’ 2011; Wilson, Artists in the University, 2018.

  44. 44.

    Albumleaves was to be recorded for Signum Records.

  45. 45.

    Personal email communication September 2012.

  46. 46.

    Wilson, Artists in the University, 2018.

  47. 47.

    See Armstrong, ‘An Experimental Turn,’ 2018; Armstrong et al., ‘Com-Note,’ 2015.

  48. 48.

    Desbruslais YouTube video October 2013.

  49. 49.

    Vera John-Steiner, Creative Collaboration (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).

  50. 50.

    Biggs and Büchler, ‘Communities, Values, Conventions and Actions,’ 2010.

  51. 51.

    Blom et al., ‘How Artists Working in Academia View Artistic Practice as Research,’ 2011, 363.

  52. 52.

    Wilson, Artists in the University, 2018, 72.

  53. 53.

    MILES funding application January 2013. ‘Models and Mathematics in Life and Social Sciences,’ EPSRC reference EP/I000992/1.

  54. 54.

    Com-Note narrative August 2014.

  55. 55.

    Bennett et al., ‘The Artistic Practice-Research-Teaching (ART) Nexus,’ 2010, 15.

  56. 56.

    Crispin, ‘Artistic Research and Music Scholarship,’ 2015.

  57. 57.

    Seana Moran and Vera John-Steiner, ‘How Collaboration in Creative Work Impacts Identity and Motivation,’ in Collaborative Creativity: Contemporary perspectives, edited by Dorothy Miell and Karen Littleton (London: Free Association Books, 2004), 11–25.

  58. 58.

    Ibid., 12.

  59. 59.

    Keith Sawyer, Group Genius (New York: Basic Books, 2007).

  60. 60.

    Serge Lacasse and Sophie Stévance, Research-Creation in Music and the Arts: Towards a collaborative interdiscipline (Abingdon, New York: Routledge, 2018).

  61. 61.

    Ibid., 151.

  62. 62.

    Ibid., 152.

  63. 63.

    Ibid., 127.

  64. 64.

    Wilson, Artists in the University, 2018.

  65. 65.

    Nicholas Cook. ‘Performing Research: Some institutional perspectives,’ in Artistic Practice as Research in Music: Theory, criticism, practice, edited by Mine Doǧantan-Dack (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015), 18.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Music and Media, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK

    Tom Armstrong

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Correspondence to Tom Armstrong .

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  1. Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK

    Martin Blain

  2. Kingston University, London, UK

    Helen Julia Minors

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Armstrong, T. (2020). Collaboration and the Practitioner-Researcher: A Composer’s Perspective. In: Blain, M., Minors, H. (eds) Artistic Research in Performance through Collaboration. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38599-6_8

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