Conclusion
Discussing the research question
In the introduction, I argued that the research question is an artistic one and can not be answered in academic text alone, but through artistic praxis mainly. For this reason I will not give a textbook answer to the research question, but rather expound on how engaging with it has developed and evolved my artistic praxis and articulate some results the research has had for me as a performer-composer. I will restate the research question: "How does my dual role of performer-composer interrelate and enrich my artistic praxis as a performer?"
Before I started my master studies, my method of composition consisted of countless hours with Sibelius, listening to (horrific) MIDI playbacks and adjusting notes. Yet, I had an unease about this, as I had an impression it was hard for the musicians I composed for to express themselves in the highly composed music I wrote. Likewise, in my performance of scored music, my focus was primarily on playing "correct," making my double bass sound like what the composers might have heard in such composition programs. To summarise how this has changed as a result of my project work: I have let my performance become more compositional; and my compositional process has become more performative. I will explain this in more detail:
As a performer, I have become surprised by my open attitude as a composer: how positive I am to co-creative processes even in context of scores. Though the scores present the music as black and white, I've experienced that my intentions as a composer are more open than the scores make it seem. This has been a key realisation, a turning point, changing my approach to performing scored music. When I see that my scores look more specific than I intended them to be, I realise that the perceived specificity of the score may be misleading. If I, as a composer, long for the musicians to put their life and soul into performing the composition creatively, perhaps I should also do that in performing the music of others. Ditching the term "interpretation" has in this process been helpful in order to come to the score with a more personal and creative mindset. I don't like to think that I am interpreting the composer's intention, but rather that the composer and I are co-creating music to some extent. My primary question in performance is no longer primarily how to perform correctly, but it is asking what I desire this music to be, what kind of aesthetic experiences I envision can be made through performance.
As a composer: my compositional process has become more performance-centred. Recognising the performing role as an essentially creative one makes it a relevant method for composition. I now let compositions arise through performance and develop through performance. The score has become more a tool for memorising my own compositions, rather than being considered the composition itself. Being a performing composer gives vast possibilities for letting go of creative control. It opens up for compositions less specific, more trust based, more personal, less hierarchical. The project work has awakened my curiosity about ways of engaging performing musicians I work with in active creative processes where they can shape the artistic result to a great degree. This is something I carry with me from this project work, which I can continue exploring for years to come.
Final thoughts
Before concluding, I wish to make some remarks about the role of performing composer praxises in performing music education. A recurring question that has been asked regarding my project work is "do you study performance or composition?" Though the technical answer is performance, such questions uncover an attitude that unnecesarilly bisects many (particularly jazz) musicians' artistic praxises: namely that performance and composition have to be viewed as two separate activities. This notion has had the effect that only the performing part of my artistic praxis has seemed relevant in an educational setting, whereas compositional skills and praxises are mostly considered irrelevant. This seems counterintuitive to me. In my performing praxis as a jazz musician (and especially a bassist), composition, bandleading and performance are thoroughly integrated. My individual performance as a bassist is not the most interesting part of the artistic result as I see it, as my bass performance usually constitutes a minor part of the overall sound the audience hears. Discussing a holistic approach considering composition, co-creation, bandleading, interplay and performance seems more fruitful, relevant and reflective of my artistic praxis.
This is, as I see it, an example of how institutions founded on tenets of classical music are situated in a discourse that does not manage to reflect jazz (and other genres) rightly, and needs to adapt their thinking to engage in the discourses of other genres. Like Cristopher Small [1998, p. 9], I advocate for a wide definition of performance, blurring the lines between composition, bandleading, performance, etc. I hope this exposition may contribute to legitimising composition and compositional practices as an integrated part of the performing jazz musician's praxis.
Thanks
Sources:
Alice Coltrane (1970). Ptah, the El Daoud [Album]. Impulse! Records.
Aloft Quartet. (2020). Farewell Old Ways [Album]. AMP Music & Records.
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers (1956). The Jazz Messengers [Album]. Sony Music Entertainment.
Beaugeais, K. I. V. (2020). Dual Role of a composer-performer: Creative Collaboration in New Australian Saxophone Music and Large-Scale Works. (Doctoral thesis). The University of Sydney.
Berliner, P. (1993) The soul of the mbira. University of Chicago Press.
Bly de Blyant (2013). ABC [Album]. HUBRO.
Borgdorff, H. (2006). The debate on research in the arts (Volume 2). Kunsthøgskolen i Bergen.
Briotrio (2021). Yeah! [Album]. AMP Music & Records.
Charles Mingus (1959). Mingus Ah Um [Album]. Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
Chick Corea (1968). Tones for Joan's Bones [Album]. Atlantic Records.
Coleman, O. (1959). The Shape of Jazz to Come [Album]. Atlantic Records.
Cook, N. (2013). Beyond the score: Music as performance. Oxford University Press.
Cornish, J. (2015). Graphic Music Scores as a Means of Musical Liberation. A journal of art + culture(s) in Detroit 22. Infinite Mile.
Cort Piil (2022). Leaving Home [Album]. AMP Music & Records.
d'Aquili, E. G. & Newberg, A. B. (2004). The Neuropsychology of aesthetic, spiritual and mystical states. Zygon 35(1), 39-51.
Demmrich, S. (2020). Music as a trigger of religious experience: What role does culture play? Psychology of music 48(1). 35-49.
Dewey, J. (1980). Art as experience (23rd impression). G. P. Putnam's Sons.
Dlamini, S. (Ed.). (2017). First International Bow Music Conference Proceedings. International Library of African Music.
Groth, S. K. (2017). Ambiguos authorship in contemporary music performance. Seismograf.
https://seismograf.org/fokus/composers_on_stage/groth Accessed 16. April 2023.
Krausz, M. (1993). The Interpretation of Music: Philosophical Essays. Clarendon Press Oxford.
Kubik, G. (1994). Theory of African Music: Volume I. University of Chicago Press.
Leavy, P. (2020). Method Meets Art: Arts-Based Research Practice (3rd edition). Guilford Press.
Leech-Wilkinson, D. (2016). Classical music as enforced Utopia. Arts & Humanities in Higher Education 15(3-4).
Maria Kannegaard (2017). Live at Kongsberg & Trondheim Jazzfestival [Album]. Jazzland Recordings.
Maria Kannegaard Trio (2016). Quiet Joy [Album]. Jazzland Recordings.
McCoy Tyner (1974). Atlantis [Album]. Milestone Records.
O'Grady, T. J. (1980). Interpretetive Freedom and the Composer-Performer Relationsip. The Journal of Aesthetic Education 14(2). University of Illinois Press.
Paul Chambers (1957). Bass On Top [Album]. Blue Note.
Reid, R. (2000). The Evolving Bassist. (Milennium Edition). Myriad Limited.
Ringer, A. L. & Crossley-Holland, P. (2008). Musical Composition. Encyclopedia Brittanica. https://www.britannica.com/art/musical-composition Accessed 16. April 2023.
Sannes, G. (2021). Overgivelsen (Master thesis). University of Bergen.
Small, C. G. (1998). Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening. Wesleyan University Press.
Spears, J. (2022). Composing Together and Not Together - Intimacy as a Condition for Collaboration. [Doctoral Thesis] Norwegian Academy of Music. https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/1377266/1377267/0/0 Accessed 16. April 2023.
Tamusuza, S. N. & Solomon, T. (2012). Ethnomusicology in East-Africa: Perspectives from Uganda and Beyond. Fountain Publishers.
The Unity Band (2019). Fabric [Album]. The Unity Band.
Thomas Lossius Septet (2021). Seven Words for Ekstasia [Album]. AMP Music & Records.
Whybrew, W. E. (1963). Art and technique in music education. Music educators journal 49(4). MENC: The National Association for Music Education.
Zulu, Ndabo & Umgidi Ensemble (2020). Queen Nandi: The African Symphony [Album]. Ndabo Zulu.