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Music in the Social and Behavioral
Sciences: An Encyclopedia
Creativity, Theories of Musical
Contributors: Naresh N. Vempala
Editors: William Forde Thompson
Book Title: Music in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An Encyclopedia
Chapter Title: "Creativity, Theories of Musical"
Pub. Date: 2014
Access Date: February 24, 2015
Publishing Company: SAGE Publications, Inc.
City: Thousand Oaks
Print ISBN: 9781452283036
Online ISBN: 9781452283012
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781452283012.n92
Print pages: 276-279
©2014 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This PDF has been generated from SAGE knowledge. Please note that the pagination
of the online version will vary from the pagination of the print book.
Music in Social and Behavioral
©2014 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SAGE knowledge
Page 3 of 8 Music in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An
Encyclopedia: Creativity, Theories of Musical
http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781452283012.n92Ryerson University
Although there are several definitions of the term creativity, almost all suggest that
creativity refers to the ability to produce something new or original and considered
to be of value. The product can be anything ranging from an idea to an invention. In
musical creativity, this is usually a musical composition or a live performance, either in
[p. 276 ↓ ] the form of an audio recording or in the form of a symbolic format such as
music notation. The extent to which a product may be deemed creative is dependent on
various factors. Additionally, in order for a producer's product to be considered creative,
there has to be a consumer who ascertains the creative value of this product.
From the producer's perspective, the creative product might be something novel.
However, the product's existence or nonexistence in the outside world is something the
producer might be unaware of. Along these lines, Margaret Boden distinguishes two
categories of creativity. If the product is novel/original to the person who produces it,
this is referred to as p-creativity (psychological creativity). However, if no one else has
thought of this before (i.e., this is new in human history), it is referred to as h-creativity
(historical creativity). H-creativity is considered to be a special case of p-creativity, and
is considered more important and of greater value. However, to understand the type
of mental processes that went into the creation of a specific product, it is necessary to
study p-creativity.
Though there are no clear, universally accepted quantitative methods of assessing
creativity, it is the consumer who determines the originality and value of the created
product through his or her subjective appraisal. Consumers may be broadly categorized
into two types. The first type of consumer is an expert or critic in the domain in which
the product has been created. These experts act as gatekeepers who determine the
originality of the product by comparing it to other existing products in that domain. In
the case of musical creativity, the product of creation is usually a musical composition.
The gatekeepers are expert music critics, listeners and musicians with domain-
specific knowledge about the genre(s) into which the composition falls. The second
type of consumer is the common consumer. These consumers play an important
role in popularizing the product based on their preferences. Their preferences are
influenced by their personal opinion of the composition as well as their informed view
of the product based on the opinions of music critics. The originality of the product as
Music in Social and Behavioral
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Page 4 of 8 Music in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An
Encyclopedia: Creativity, Theories of Musical
assessed by consumers as well as the popularity of the product over a period of time
determine the product's value with respect to h-creativity.
Processes Involved in Creativity
In 1964, Arthur Koestler proposed a theory of general creativity wherein he outlined
the process of bisociation and explained its importance with respect to originality.
The phenomenon of bisociation involves the intermingling or bringing together of two
or more unconnected matrices of thought. In cognitive terms these matrices may be
different knowledge spaces or knowledge schemas within the producer's mind. Novelty
or originality comes from the ways in which bisociation is brought about by the producer.
In other words, elements from existing knowledge spaces within the producer's mind
or conceptual space are combined in new ways. The origin of the jazz fusion musical
genre is an example of bisociation among various musicians. Although both rock and
jazz existed as separate musical genres till the late 1960s, rock musicians started
imbibing certain elements of jazz, such as free-form improvisation and unique chordal
harmony. Likewise, jazz musicians started incorporating elements from rock music,
such as steady backbeat rhythms and electronic sounds (e.g., keyboard and guitar
distortion). Miles Davis's album Bitches Brew (1970) is a good example of a jazz fusion
album, a product of bisociation between two separate genres of music, incorporating
jazz and rock elements.
There are different variants of this basic theory of creativity based on bisociation. Boden
mentions two types of creative processes, which are exploratory creative thinking and
transformational creative thinking. In exploratory creativity, the producer is still rooted
within the same domain in which he or she is attempting the creation of something new.
However, the domain might be extremely broad, consisting of a lot of knowledge that
has not always been explored in its current social setting. In other words, restrictions
have been placed on the domain by its current practitioners knowingly or unknowingly,
and most products originating within that domain fall under a restricted creative space.
Through exploratory creativity, a producer would study the lesser-used components of
that domain and utilize them in the creation of something unique and original. This may
be interpreted as another type of bisociation.
Music in Social and Behavioral
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Page 5 of 8 Music in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An
Encyclopedia: Creativity, Theories of Musical
In transformational creativity, a producer might feel inhibited by the existing rules and
practices of that domain. He or she might have several [p. 277 ↓ ] creative goals in
mind and feel the need to expand the current domain to accommodate his or her
creative needs. The producer transforms the existing domain by incorporating methods,
techniques, and knowledge acquired either through his or her own imagination or by
borrowing techniques from other domains. Two examples of transformational creativity
are the following: In the late 1960s, blues rock was emerging as a new musical genre.
One of the core elements of blues rock involved using blues-based musical motifs, or
licks, through a distorted electric guitar. Jimi Hendrix had strong knowledge pertaining
to musical subgenres that were integral to the blues-rock domain but felt creatively
limited by the types of sounds that could be elicited from a distorted guitar. So he
began experimenting with sounds that included sustained feedback from an amplifier.
Eventually, these experiments matured into established techniques in blues-rock
guitar playing. Likewise, in the late 1970s, Eddie Van Halen felt creatively limited by
the techniques used in the rock domain for expression. Through self-exploration and
by borrowing from other musical domains such as classical music, he incorporated
techniques from outside the rock genre. Additionally, he expanded the timbral qualities
of rock guitar through the use of custom-designed effects pedals. Based on the
originality of their products and the value of their work as determined by the influence
both these musicians had on successive musicians of these genres, both types of
creativity may be considered as categories of h-creativity.
Musical Creativity and Domain Knowledge
One of the primary requirements for creativity is having specialized domain knowledge.
This knowledge consists of the set of rules, methods, and practices pertaining
to that domain. For example, a jazz musician who is in the process of creating
something should have specialized knowledge of (1) the theoretical and technical
aspects pertaining to rhythm, melody, and harmony; (2) several jazz standards and
arrangements; (3) jazz idioms; and (4) jazz musicians and their idiosyncratic styles with
respect to improvisation, among several other things. Specialized domain knowledge
helps the producer to understand the limits of the conceptual space afforded by that
domain. In order to enable experts of that domain to assess the creative value of a
Music in Social and Behavioral
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Encyclopedia: Creativity, Theories of Musical
product based on elements of originality and uniqueness, the product has to fall within
certain constraints imposed by that domain. Therefore, specialized domain knowledge
helps the producer to expand the domain's limits without violating some of these
constraints.
Although specialized domain knowledge is considered to be a necessary component
for creativity, formal education is not considered to be essential. A musician might gain
specialized knowledge without formal education through various other means such
as self-exploration, listening to other musicians and learning, and playing regularly
with other musicians and assimilating a repertoire of techniques and methods. Several
mainstream musicians have gained specialized domain knowledge through some
of these nonformal methods. However, not having a formal education might limit
certain creative possibilities for the producer. The producer may not be aware of
certain existing practices within the domain that could add a level of complexity to his
compositions. On the other side of the spectrum, it is possible that a musician who
has undergone several years of formal training might be constrained by traditional
ways of approaching composition, thereby limiting the conceptual space for creating
something novel. Despite some of these advantages and disadvantages of having a
formal education, examples pertaining to creativity in general and musical creativity
in particular suggest that formal education is neither an essential requirement nor
a significant limitation for creativity, as long as some level of specialized domain
knowledge is acquired.
Intelligence is another aspect that has been extensively studied with respect to
creativity. Some studies have looked into creative thinking as a kind of intelligence that
could be measured through IQ, while others have approached it as a different type
of mental process. Some studies have shown a small, positive correlation between
IQ and creativity. However, many examples of creative thinking have been found
in individuals without a high IQ. Hence, the accepted view is that a basic level of
intelligence, measured in terms of IQ beyond a minimum threshold, is necessary for
creative thinking. Beyond this threshold, the level of intelligence does not seem to
matter when determining the creative ability of an individual.
[p. 278 ↓ ]
Music in Social and Behavioral
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Page 7 of 8 Music in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An
Encyclopedia: Creativity, Theories of Musical
Musical Creativity Using Computers
Several software tools are currently available for automated composition of music. They
work on the basis of some type of algorithmic composition involving one or more of
the following: rule-based approaches, stochastics, genetic algorithms, and machine
learning. One goal toward which a majority of these applications strive is an element
of randomness when generating compositions, where the randomness contributes to
the level of novelty, which is important for assessing the creative value of a product. A
few advantages offered by the use of computers in composition, given their processing
speeds and memory resources, are large database searches of musical patterns,
quick learning of styles pertaining to specific genres and composers, and efficient
real-time execution of programmed algorithms. However, despite these advantages,
these applications do not necessary reflect the way creative thinking occurs in a human
composer, although they may capture certain aspects of bisociation.
Naresh N.Vempala, Ryerson University
http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781452283012.n92
See Also:
•Algorithm
•Composition
•Computer Models of Music
•Computer Music
•Generation
•Improvisation
•Inspiration
•Intelligence
•Neural Network Models
•Training
Further Readings
Boden, M. The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms . New York: Routledge, 2004.
Music in Social and Behavioral
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Page 8 of 8 Music in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An
Encyclopedia: Creativity, Theories of Musical
Cope, D. Computer Models of Musical Creativity . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005.
Deliege, I., ed. and G. Wiggins, eds. Musical Creativity: Multidisciplinary Research in
Theory and Practice . New York: Psychology Press, 2006.
Koestler, A. The Act of Creation . New York: Penguin Books, 1964.
