Inspiration and decision-making: A case study of a composer’s intuitive and reflective thought

Abstract

This article reports a qualitative exploratory case study of a composer’s compositional inspiration, thinking, and decision-making. The aim was to explore the dynamics and functions of intuitive and reflective modes of thinking, thus expanding the recent trend in composition research, which has given increasing attention to implicit, imaginative, and inspirational aspects of composition. The data of the study were collected in natural settings in the composer’s work studio during the compositional process. The data comprised stimulated recall interviews, as well as all of the manuscripts that the composer wrote concerning the process under scrutiny. The findings indicate the saliency of the composer’s germinal ideas into the compositional process. The composer elaborated, transcribed, and embodied his multimodal ideas, step-by-step, into musical passages of the evolving score. The process comprised two core procedures. First, compositional thinking was manifested as concrete representations, i.e., the manuscripts. Second, intuitive aspirations entered the conscious mind and subsequently opened themselves up for reflective processes. Two dilemmas were identified in defining the composer’s uncertain and complex working circumstances. The strategic and ontological dimensions of compositional decision-making were identified. The study produced a thick description of what is probably the most complicated phenomenon of musical behaviour: composing outside the confines of a laboratory environment. It explicated compositional thinking as continuous and appropriate fluctuations of intuitive and reflective ideation, monitored by metacognitive function. It also presented a detailed analysis of the dynamics of problem accumulation, i.e., the way the composer decided not to decide, which originated from the composer’s ill-defined working circumstances and his ethos of seeking coherence and employing constructionist aesthetics.