In this section I have analysed different ways in which children were creatively interacting together. I considered three main media through which communication occurs –
movement, sound, and language. The diagram below represents their relationship (see Figure 18): the three circles are largely overlapping to signify that these media of interaction (verbal, nonverbal, musical) are, in practice, mostly combined. The verbal circle is smaller, because verbal interactions seem to be less relevant than or secondary to the musical or body-based interactions.
Verbal interactions Musical interactions Bodily interactions
Table 11 further details the different kinds of interaction, as they have been identified and categorised in this study. It is important to note, as trivial as it may sound, that there is a difference between the observable behaviour (which can be described) and the internal states associated to it (which have to be inferred). This is to say that one thing is what I see – children moving, playing, or interacting in certain ways – and something else is what interpretation I can give of it, i.e. of the thinking, feeling, and perceiving of the individual or of the group which motivates that behaviour. In this sense, in order to gain a more comprehensive view of what is happening in the interaction, I had to go beyond the mere observation and description of the events, and verify my understanding (or
conjectures, often) based on what participants/children said about themselves and their experience in relation to the interaction (which is a tenet of ethnographic approaches in qualitative enquiry – Stauffer & Robbins, 2009).
Table 11. Media and kinds of interaction in creative group work in music Media of
interaction Kinds of interaction
BODILY INTERACTIONS
Nonverbal, body- based communication
Voice: paralinguistic features which accompany speech (emotional tone of voice, pitch contour, loudness, prosody, rhythm, intonation, stress) Nonverbal language: facial expression, quality of eye contact and gaze, gestures, touching, body posture and movement
Embodied interactions in movement / dance
Movement interactions for contact, trust, and team building
Movement interactions for musical/rhythm skills
Embodied musical communication
Musical gestures: movement cues to signal beginning, ending, or a forthcoming event/change
Synchronising: within one's own body, with an external beat, with a partner, as a group, regulating one's own motor-musical patterns to those made by partners
MUSICAL INTERACTIONS
Musical interactive behaviours
Interaction with the instrument
Extemporary interactions (in improvisation) and planned interactions (in composition)
Interactive behaviours in music: modelling, imitating, following, varying, contrasting, complementing, leading Horizontal and vertical interactions: taking turns vs playing simultaneously
VERBAL INTERACTIONS
Task-related verbal interactions
Verbal language as a support to express, describe, and clarify musical actions or intentions
Talking within the process of creating music (saying and doing, accompanying actions with verbal explanations)
Talking about the process of creating music Off-task verbal
interactions
Verbal exchanges about other contents Off-task talk
An example for different types of interaction: "Volcano"
As a conclusion to this section I present the experience of the three male children in an instrumental group composition as an instance of how the different kinds of interaction examined above coexist in the group process.
Figure 19. J. Martin, "The great day of His wrath" (1853)
(starting point for group composition "Volcano")
In the course of the project the group engaged in a series of improvisations and
compositions based on the musical interpretation of art works (this is a strategy which is often used in creative music making, recommended among many others by Hickey, 2012). In the following I describe and comment on the work of Flavio, Giacomo and Lorenzo responding to a painting (see Figure 19). The strategy they used in relating to the picture was to identify and represent relevant elements of it through an articulated sequence of corresponding musical events.
N. 19 Vocal group composition based on imagery: "Volcano" (1)
In their first rendition of the piece (https://vimeo.com/105333814, dvd.35) the three boys have roughly agreed about the overall structure of the piece: Flavio begins with a 'shhh', then Lorenzo announces the four phases of the catastrophe they have identified in the picture: the volcano explodes (Giacomo plays a tremolo with the hands on the floor) / big stones fall down / the smoke goes up / and eventually lava destroys everything. Lorenzo pronounces the words and indicates the corresponding points in the picture. They do not have a clear sign for the ending, Giacomo tries with gestures to suggest to Flavio that he should do something, but Flavio does not know and says "what's there?", they giggle, and then conclude in a sort of embarrassed silence. There is not much sound, rather almost only words.
Commenting on the performance, we discussed with the group about how to expand the material, for example by not just mentioning the event, but representing it with various onomatopoeic sounds with the voice. Through two subsequent performances the group worked on how to differentiate the sounds for each phase, presenting them one at a time, finding more details for each, and participating with the whole body in association with the voice. The aim was to 'make things bigger', in order for the audience to more easily grasp the meaning of what was being shown.
N. 20 Vocal group composition based on imagery: "Volcano" (2)
In the fourth (!) Gestaltung they have reached a much higher level of definition in the organisation of the musical material (https://vimeo.com/104223514, dvd.36). Lorenzo introduces each phase verbally, and they comment on it with different vocal sounds. Their global nonverbal expressions are much more intense and energetic. In particular, Flavio is now fully involved in representing the images through his body and voice.
s.17/30 20140212 F,G,L
In comparison to Giacomo and Lorenzo who stay sitting, Flavio's participation is really with the whole body. Lorenzo and Giacomo 'represent' the volcano, describing or reproducing the sounds it makes, whereas Flavio 'is' the volcano, thoroughly shaken by its tremendous energy. The issue is to become one with the image, perceiving and feeling it 'from the inside' rather than 'from the outside'. The verbal and nonverbal
expression of Giacomo at the end of their best vocal performance ("ok, let's stop it", with a cutting gesture) denotes a minor engagement with the activity. He is the least involved in it and appears not to believe in it or enjoy this way of making music.
N. 21 Instrumental group composition based on imagery: "Volcano" (3) In the next session they transfer their vocal composition on to the instruments (https://vimeo.com/104223585, dvd.37). In the group work phase they choose which instruments to use and – scaffolded by my questions – associate them to the four phases of their Gestaltung: the volcano explodes (everybody energetic tremolo on drums), rocks fall (high-pitched sounds with castanets), smoke rises up (Lorenzo glissandos on metallophone, Flavio and Giacomo brushing on drums), and lava destroys everything (chaos on all instruments). Lorenzo closes with a gesture to the others the irregularly declining turbulence of the destruction.
s.18/30 20140219 F,G,L
Their bodily participation in playing the instruments is remarkable, eventually here they are really at one with what they are playing – they seem emotionally attuned. Their