Listening to Compose, Composing to Listen

Abstract

Abstract Music listening is foundational to every generative musical behavior—composing, improvising, and performing. The context in which people listen to music, the role of listening to music in their lives, the focus of attention they bring to the act of listening, their perceptual abilities and sensitivity to expressive musical characteristics, and memory of prior music (listening) experiences define the meaning they assign to what they hear and feel during the listening experience. Music listening can also serve as a springboard for explorations of other music-making experiences, such as composition. In this chapter, we will situate music listening as creative thinking and examine the roles of music listening in students composing, such that their compositional skills benefit from the composer’s active music listening acuity and sensitivity and vice versa. We will consider music listening as the determinant of compositional possibilities, serving as model and inspiration for organizing musical sounds and creating expressive intent. Additionally, deep listening to one’s own musical product is part of compositional revision, reflective and critical thinking, and metacognition processes, needed to determine if what the composer intended is conveyed musically. This also leads into thinking critically about how to guide others into listening to their musical product according to the composer’s intent. Specifically, we will explore formulating questions that lead to higher-order thinking skill, critical and creative thinking, and reflective thinking skill development. The chapter concludes with sample student-centered music listening experiences that prompt musical arrangements, vocal-body-instrumental compositions, and song “cover” experiences.