Music serves as a channel of communication and self-expression. The self is “constantly being reconstructed and renegotiated according to experiences, situations and other people with whom we interact in daily life.” (Hargreaves, 2002). To discuss musical identity from a psychological perspective, Hargreaves, Miell, and Macdonald pointed out two aspects of the topic which are musical identities and identity in music. The musical identity is strongly associated with musical taste, which is based on an individual’s beliefs and behavior. The identity in music involves the traditionally defined roles in music such as performer, composer, teacher, and the instrument that musician is drawn to and the genre they prefer. (Hargreaves, 2002)
Amateur adults and children music-makers have relatively negative musical identities (Lamont, 2011). The myth that only the people who were born musically talented can achieve success later on is not valid, however it is a source of motivation (Sloboda, 1994). Family and peer influence is one important reason to start playing music as well (Lamont, 2011). Apart from the outside influence on the development of a musician, personality is an important element affecting musicians and there are personality differences between musicians with different instruments (Kemp, 1996).
Artists all have their own pathway to develop their own identity. For example, the Icelandic singer, songwriter, record producer, actress, and DJ Björk’s first adult solo album “Debut” (Björk, 1993) has marked her departure from all the bands she has been involved in before and to form her new musical identity with a new multigene sound. Same breakthrough in artistic identity also can be found in German singer and songwriter Nina Hagen. Nina Hagen’s first debut album “Nina Hagen Band” (Nina Hagen, 1978) had very different style in singing compare to her straightforward singing style in East Germany at teen age. Her debut album incorporated operatic and theatrical vocals that are nicely combined into hard rock. The debut album matches her strong personality that continues throughout her later career. Another artist that bridges classical and jazz is composer and pianist Hiromi Uehara. Hiromi was trained as a classical pianist from young age. Growing up as a prodigy pianist in classical music, Hiromi started to learned jazz during her teen period. Over the years, she has developed her own style of fusion music which blends in many genres such as progressive rock, classical, post-bop, and so on. Her rendition on Canon in D Johann Pachelbel would be an example how she combines classical music with jazz (Pachelbel, 2010).
2) Literature review
Surrounding the topic of a musician’s artistic identity, researchers have been exploring in different sub topics, such as what is musical identity, the connection between artistic identity and teaching occupational identity, musical identity formation and transformation, and other relevant aspects related to musical identity such as leadership (Rowley, 2016) and life-long learning (Lamont, 2011).
The fundamental reason for this research is to look at how artists search for their identities and how that identity evolves over time, continually affected by life experience. The topic interests the author with an intention to reflect upon her own and others’ experiences on the topic and furthermore to generate knowledge that may be useful to others in their artistic work.
Research Method
In my research I draw on aspects of autoethnography and artistic research, collecting observational data on the development and formation of artistic identity through my own artistic processes, musical creations, performances, recordings, self-reflection and peer interviews. “Autoethnography is an approach to research and writing that seeks to describe and systematically analyse personal experience in order to understand cultural experience.” (Ellis, 2011) This research method is the most suitable way to approach my research topic. Artistic research has been considered different from scientific research that the researcher themselves are “intimately intertwined with what they are exploring” (Borgdorff, 2009), therefore the artistic research cannot simply follow the standard research model but to develop its own model to better serve the nature of artistic research. Researches of art should be its own category within the Humanities classification. (Borgdorff, 2009)
My project focusses its investigation by asking the following research question:
How can I develop my own artistic identity within an intercultural environment at a Finnish music higher education institution?
Artistic identity in a social psychological point of view is related also to self-concept, self-esteem, and self-identity (Hargreaves, 2002). I want to look at the development of artistic identity because it is essential for music making in general and self-development. In this project, I view music in terms of how artists express themselves through interaction with their surrounding environments, life experiences and self-reflection. Artistic identity is viewed in terms of how an artist identifies their own position through interaction with society and their own inner world.
1) Research question and methodology
This paper is a case study of the development of a musician’s identity in an intercultural environment within the context of a Finnish music higher education system. Data is collected through utilising the methods of artistic research and autoethnography, whereby I construct new knowledge by drawing on my own artistic processes, musical creations, self-reflection and interviews with other students.
