3.2 Creating the music
The music for the HumanTree was created in small groups and through improvisational activities based on the topic of the themes. Generally, our first practises were settled towards Workshop Model Three (Hendrickse, 2015), where participants are acting as improvisers, exploring the sounds born from our first interaction. Before the improvisation, diversity of warm up exercises were led in order to prepare our body and mind for being more creative. As one participant mentions: ‘for me it usually is very helpful in connecting to myself and to others to do some kind of movement before starting to do music (Message written reflection, November 2019). Recording the first improvisations was the tool used for analyse, devise and develop the music creation. Because there were many improvisations happening during the sessions, the recording was a useful resource for being aware of what actually happened. I listened to, alone, and reflected on the session recordings to create new musical material influenced by our first meeting.
For the following sessions I was bringing the fixed yet flexible material, and through discussion and a continuous improvisation we together developed and arranged those materials moving towards Workshop Model Two (Hendrickse, 2015). Within the sessions, there were processes of refining and shaping the final product. The recording was a resource used as well in this stage. With each group we were listening together as a way to evaluate and as a way to remember what we did last session. However, each song developed in diverse ways and involved the musicians in different ways. Some participants were involved from the very early stages and others were joining at the refining practises as I will describe more specifically in each of the different themes.
As mentioned above, there was a part of my own creation. Analysing these processes I discovered my tendency to start creating the musical material from rhythms, such as polyrhythms and metric modulations. Succeeding with these challenging rhythms has not been only a mental activity but also a process that includes ‘physicality’ as a process of learning quicker and more accurately, remarking ‘the ways in which physical expression through dance facilitates music learning’ (Hendrickse, 2005, p. 404-405). The use of cyclic repetition has been another important aspect to absorb the rhythm, feeling the groove. The next step is to bring this material to the instrument, adding a melody and harmony to it. The last stage before you can see the seeds being grown is to improvise with it and figure out a structure that combines the sections. Even if I was the one that brought creative material, it can be called a collective social process as described by Sawyer (2000) because the individual “contributions only make sense in terms of the way they are heard, absorbed, and elaborated on” by the other participants. In this way the performance “emerges from the interactions of the group” (Sawyer, 2000, quoted in Muhonen, 2016, p.47).
Some participants asked about their degree of implication or expected role in the project and I emphasized on the fluid distributed leadership in this project (Gaunt & Treacy, 2019). For example I was responsible for leading the process of the music creation and the whole performance but at the same time everybody was adding their opinion and ideas for development on structure, proposing musical ideas, adding a break to the music, exploring the dynamics. Because it was my master final concert in which I would be evaluated by examiners, my degree of implication to the project was higher than the other participants. Even Though this requirement I wanted to facilitate collective voices and collaborative making (Gaunt & Treacy, 2019). As one of the participants said, ‘there were many discussions and exercises to support the internalisation of the process during rehearsals. And, everybody was welcomed and encouraged with their own ideas and interpretation’ (Personal discussion, 17th June 2020).
From this leadership I had to manage new processes out of my comfort zone (Gaunt & Treacy, 2019). As revealed by the study from Westerlund, Partti and Karlsen (2015), a significant intercultural learning is found in student-teachers and it is related to ‘the stress and related success experienced’ when there is a creative task and at the same time a leadership role of ‘developing trust and new patterns of interaction’ (W. P and K, 2015, p. 17). For example, in some practises I had to manage my feelings of insecurity while leading a session that aims to not be led by one rather by all. I also realized that sometimes these pressures are only within yourself and are unnoticeable to others. As one participant shared: ‘I felt that you were listening to the moments and what was rising there, and trusted that. It felt like you were listening to both yourself and us’ (Message written reflection, November 2019).
Similarly as the qualities of interaction between the participants, the seven themes have many connections within that unify the whole performance. At the start of the creation process, in a talk with one of the supervisors we discussed a needed musical DNA that could unify the whole performance. All the different themes are part of a whole being and so the music. Even though there was an independent process behind every creation, within each theme there was an understanding of the other, leading to a total unity. Already in the first structure you can see an attempt to connect some aspects of some themes (See figure 1.4)
The music was built thinking as a story with its different dynamics. When and how to introduce an instrument was so much connected with what the themes needed. For example, the Stages of growth was obvious that needed a real progressive growth of musicians on stage in concordance with its topic, in contrast to the Relief of forgiveness that intended to be as less and magic as possible. A harvest of wishes, was bringing up the dynamics in a very playful manner, with all the band members on stage. The last closing theme, Peace and Freedom, brought a reflective atmosphere that intended to bring the energy to deeper levels closing a circle of life.
