Bodily Intention in Children's Improvisation and Composition

Abstract

The study from which this report is derived explores children's experience of improvising and composing and seeks to discover how children participate and reflect on creating music. Participants were 18 self-selected 12-year-old children who engaged in 21 weekly music-making sessions over six months. Findings on children's experience of improvisation and composition as distinct modes of bodily intention were determined by the interplay between body movement, instrument and instrument preference. Distinction in bodily intention for improvising was characterised by an intersensory functioning of the "perceiving body" whereas composing engaged the "knowing body" for its kinaesthetic memory.