Sampling, Narrative and Creativity

University of Newcastle Research Seminar - November 2000

Introduction

In its simplest sense this presentation is about an example of my compositional work. A year-or-so ago I was invited to provide music for a production of Ariel Dorfman's play Widows, which, combined with the fact that my compositional practice has, for a number of years, sample-based, makes the choice of title - Sampling, Narrative and Creativity – is an obvious one. I will be talking about the interrelationship of these areas, within the awkward context of my own compositional process.

I say 'awkward' because compositional or creative process becomes a problematic area when one starts to think about how to talk at length, with insight and critical distance about deeply embedded and personal experiences that are often intuitively driven and which are at times beyond the reach of verbal description. The approach taken here is a critical reflection upon and a retracing of my response to a specific compositional task – the task being that which was usefully provided by the play (useful in that it brings into focus a certain telos or purposefulness). This is a telling of a compositional story if you like and focuses upon the formation of what turned out to be a six-and-a-half minute piece of music in its own right. In spite of its problems, the interrogation of creative process is something I am committed to in research, practice, and education. Its validity and interest are, for obvious reasons, unquestionable in the context of a Music Department such as this.

Returning to the title, and getting down from my soapbox, this paper looks at the relationship between narrative and creative process. How, in this instance, does narrative steer the creative process and contribute to the formation of musical ideas?

And from this, how might narrative be more broadly theorised in relation to creativity and musical meaning?

As the composer it was my job to enter into a relationship with the play's text, reflect upon the fictional world it conjured up in me, and from here to then develop sonic representations of the associated thoughts, feelings, and ideas. The presentation will look at the nature of these relationships – between myself and the play, and between myself and the music – and its significance to an understanding of creative process and meaning more generally.

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