The Relationship between Theory and Creative Practice

Research paper delivered at the University of Surrey, December 13, 2005

Anecdotes: Tensions and Difference

When I saw the title on the programme I was reminded that really I should talking about how important theory is for creative practitioners, and that people generally more interested in the 'doing' of music need reminding of the usefulness of the 'thinking' - ideas, contextual awareness, process, content, forms of analysis. In a roundabout way I will be doing this but there are lots of interesting things to say about theory and practice if we reflect on the use of these terms and in particular the relationship between them in some detail. Not only should it be more interesting but it will also help bring into consideration theory and practice for those of you who don't think of yourselves first-and-foremost as musical 'doers'.

Before giving one or two anecdotal examples of how the relationship between theory and practice has been part of my life over the last few years, it is worth pointing out that normative definitions of 'theory and practice' tend to set the two terms in opposition. For example, one definition of theory reads, 'the branch of a science or art consisting of its explanatory statements, accepted principles, and methods of analysis, as opposed to practice ', and gives the example of ' a fine musician who had never studied theory '. Of course this distinction is not necessarily exclusive (i.e. you get theorists and musicians adept in each other's areas). I'll go on to develop this lack of exclusivity in more detail, but this common-sense distinction has a recognisable currency and meaning. For example, in university music departments, musicologists tend to be thought of as theorists and performers and composers as practitioners - and in many ways is a functional and sensible distinction to have.

However, the following anecdotes reveal a forgetfulness of this lack of exclusivity and some of the consequences of it. It is often the case within academic and post-graduate communities for a polarisation to exist between theorists or musicologists and practitioners. Postgraduates from each side of the fence tend not to mix, and academics readily identify themselves as one or the other through the kind of modules they teach and the ways research profiles become defined. Historically, an institutional emphasis is apparent between conservatoires and the university departments: there is the old adage that conservatoires keep the odd musicologist in the cupboard for special occasions, and that university music departments keep the odd practitioner in the cupboard for special occasions. At conferences and research seminars I may even have heard comments like 'oh dear, more talk about talk about music' or 'oh dear, more woolly-minded egotistical claptrap'.

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