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Creative Thinking in Music

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The Creative Process

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture ((PASCC))

Abstract

This chapter presents a snapshot of the literature on the empirical study of musical creativity, with a focus on children and adolescents’ processes, and outlines a number of factors that impact the creative process in music and contribute to individual differences in musical creativity outcomes. These factors are then illustrated through the presentation of an empirical study exploring the relationship between the musical processes and products of novice adolescents’ composers. The chapter concludes by outlining the critical role of “intention”, and therefore the role of the composer’s agency, as a fundamental and primary requirement for a successful musical creative process, as well as the critical role of creative opportunities for this process to take place.

The preparation of this chapter was partly supported by grant RFP-15-05 from the Imagination Institute (www.imagination-institute.org), funded by the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Imagination Institute or the John Templeton Foundation.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We have chosen to use the term “creative thinking ” when addressing those processes associated with the behaviors of music creation , in this case, by children and adolescents in a composition context. The word “creativity ” is seen as a more general term to encompass inventiveness in a more holistic context.

  2. 2.

    The majority of the literature reviewed here is based on the musical experience of composition . Improvisatory behavior is certainly a strong part of the creative process of composition as a product intent but the focus of this chapter is primarily on composition and not on the processes of improvisation per se. Related studies of creative thinking in improvisation , music listening or music performance with children and adolescents warrant continued study as separate topics.

  3. 3.

    This view would suggest that creativity is only a generalized ability (“g-factor view of creativity ”; Barbot & Tinio, 2015).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Pace University, New York, NY, USA

    Baptiste Barbot

  2. Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Baptiste Barbot

  3. Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Peter R. Webster

Authors
  1. Baptiste Barbot
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  2. Peter R. Webster
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Correspondence to Baptiste Barbot .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Paris Descartes University, Paris, France

    Todd Lubart

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Barbot, B., Webster, P.R. (2018). Creative Thinking in Music. In: Lubart, T. (eds) The Creative Process. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50563-7_10

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