Behind the Text, Beyond the Sound: Investigations into Processes of Creative Musical Interpretation

Abstract

These writings offer a view of performance practice from the perspective of a musician with over forty years in the profession. Although instrumental teaching of piano at tertiary level in leading music schools in the UK and Australia has been a continuing activity, the papers will focus on issues arising from the author's consideration of his experience as a performing pianist and conductor. Part I, A Musician at Work in his Community, offers autoethnographic material relating to the author's early development, training, and subsequent career. Accounts of particular activities as pianist, conductor, and as instigator and director or curator of events are presented, together with assessments of their contribution to creating new knowledge through their content as research and their contemporary significance. Part 2, A Musician Considers his View, explores the closely woven network of knowledge, belief, attitudes and values which inform my work as a performer. Consideration of the nature of music and its communicable properties are followed by an assessment of the role of music in today's consumer society. Then follows an extensive investigation of the interdependent yet commonly discrete functions of composer, performer and listener which combine to bring musical expression to vibrant life.