Becoming, Collaboration and other Alchemy: A descriptive study of a creative work that uses process-relational philosophy to illustrate how music creation can be viewed as research

Abstract

This paper is a descriptive study of the creation of a new work that used practicebased and practice-led methodology, birdsong, electro-acoustics and philosophical argument to explore the theories of becoming as representative of the concept of ‘bring forth’ new truth. The composition which was the focus of the study employed electro-acoustics, live performance and Malaysian avian motifs. Electro-acoustics: to create an accompanying soundscape of bird-calls, and to manipulate particular calls in interplay with the live performer; Live performance with two extra dimensions: extended flute techniques and the application of digital signal processing to create a ‘more-than-flute’ timbre. The Malaysian avian songs were transcribed into common notation to derive motif material from which some of the melodic, harmonic and rhythmic elements of the composition were created. Based on the case study, it will be argued that the becoming (coming into being) notion of process-relational philosophy validates the creative act as a valid research into ‘cultural’ truth. That the Heideggerian notion of ‘bringing forth’ art supports this premise as does Nietzsche’s thoughts “that what mattered in existence lay in the dynamic and energetic qualities of becoming” (Lines, 2003, p. 11).