Melbourne Conservatorium of Music

This study investigates the role of the individual improviser within the ensemble context as a means of observing the interplay of the ‘creative language’ between individuals and its manifestation within a group dynamic. Criteria as exemplified by the Miles Davis Quintet were used as a means to ascertain the quality, level of interaction, elasticity of compositions, ensemble ecology, musicianship, playfulness, role-play, and other relevant factors in an improvised music setting. The attributes of the Miles Davis Quintet were used to examine the individual and collective identities within the By a Thread ensemble, with the prime intention being to facilitate the construction and development of a collective consciousness within the ensemble. The research topic arose from the author’s aspiration to obtain a deeper connection and sense of community with other practitioners in which to undertake a collective musical journey. The purpose of approaching the research from a practitioner led perspective was to obtain a greater understanding of the author’s art, to achieve insight into the processes of improvisation, and to create contemporary jazz that was inventive in structure and detail. A review was conducted on current literature pertaining to collective creativity, collaboration and improvisation; additionally, the interaction, creativity, and individual and collective identities within the Miles Davis Quintet. An in-depth examination of this distinguished modern jazz ensemble was undertaken to elucidate their relevance to this research. The preparation, processes and development of the By a Thread ensemble were analysed to establish outcomes for this study. This included an examination of the ensemble’s common language, compositions, rehearsals, cues, co-creation, live performances, elasticizing of the musical parameters, role-play, ecology, exploration and risk taking, simultaneous improvisation, contrasting voices, repertoire variety, performance environments and recording. The process of identifying key attributes of interaction, play, identity, and creativity of the Davis quintet as a model for By a Thread resulted in tangible strategies and outcomes. The strategies facilitated the development of By a Thread’s identity, collective consciousness, cues, co-created language, elasticity of compositional parameters and approach to performance.

The aim of this research is to contribute ideas toward the possibilities of what music therapy can be, by examining the therapeutic potentials of creating and performing music within the context of an Australian maximum-security women’s prison. Until recently, music therapists rarely documented or explored the potential of performance for music therapy practice while some health professionals even suggested that performance is anti-therapeutic (See Maratos, 2004). Music therapists writing about their practices in forensic settings emphasise the therapeutic potentials of singing and song writing rather than performance and they predominantly approach these activities from a behavioural orientation. The almost singular theoretical approach to practising music therapy in forensic settings reflects a lack of relevant research. Consequently, the purpose underlying this research is to explore the therapeutic potentials of making and performing music with women in prison from an alternative perspective; namely humanistic rather than behavioural. The aim of this research is not only to examine previously undocumented processes in music therapy such as performance but also to contribute to the literature concerning the health and wellbeing of women in prison. The research was designed as a qualitative case study of a ten-week creative process involving seven women in prison who collaboratively created a musical together with artists from a theatre company. As a culmination of this ten-week process, the women in prison and the artists of the theatre company performed the musical to an audience of approximately 60 prisoners, prison officers, health professionals and prison staff. In order to examine the therapeutic potentials of creating and performing music in this case, post-performance interviews were conducted with the seven women who were in prison as well as with the artists involved in the theatre company. The researcher also wrote session notes throughout the ten-week process and these, as well as the interviews and five songs created during the ten weeks, comprise the data set for this study. The data was analysed using a variety of qualitative techniques chosen for their suitability to two main research tasks: 1) describing the case and 2) analysing the therapeutic potentials of creating and performing music in this case. In order to describe what happened collectively throughout the ten-week process, a content analysis was performed upon the researcher’s session notes. Phenomenological techniques of analysis were then applied to the interviews with the women in prison in order to describe the essence of each individual’s experience of the ten-week process. The five songs are presented in their original form as a way of further illustrating the case. In order to describe the work of the theatre company, techniques of grounded theory were used to analyse the interviews with the participating artists. Grounded theory analysis was also the method used to ultimately explain various aspects relating to the therapeutic potentials of creating and performing music in this case. The main results of this analysis are presented in three parts. The first set of results explains how creating and performing music in this case served the participating women in prison as a bridge from the ‘inside’ to the ‘outside’. These women described a real and symbolic divide between their realities inside prison and the world outside the razor wire. By creating and performing music, the women were able to experience five different ways of shifting outside of their realities in prison, by moving 1) from physical and symbolic ‘inside’ places to ‘outside’ places, 2) from privacy to public, 3) from solitude to togetherness, 4) from self-focus to a focus on others, and 5) from subjective thought processes to objective thought processes. The results outline different therapeutic potentials for each type of outward movement. The exploration of an outward-directed approach to music experience in this case can help to extend conventional music therapy practices where inward-directed therapeutic shifts are more commonly described. The second set of results depicts the influence of five personal resources that helped the women to enact the therapeutic potentials associated with each of the five outward shifts. In particular, these results suggest that each type of outward movement was especially powerful when courage, readiness, exchange, support and trust were present in their fullest dimensions. It was these resources, rather than the processes usually associated with therapy, that enabled the therapeutic potentials of creating and performing music in this case to be fulfilled. Consequently, the notions of ‘therapy’ and ‘therapeutic’ are further delineated while important implications for the use of music as therapy and for the related practice of ‘arts in health’ are highlighted. The third and final set of results suggest that music in this case, when compared with visual art and drama, provided the women with a ‘middle road’ in terms of the levels of exposure required by each art-form. As a predominantly gentle form of exposure, music in this case provided therapeutic potentials that differed more in strength rather than quality when compared with drama and visual art. These results suggest the importance of creativity in explaining the relationship between the therapeutic potentials of all arts therapies while also representing important implications for the development of indigenous theory in music therapy. In relation to the stated aims, this research documents and explores the therapeutic potentials of musical performance and directly relates these potentials to new possibilities for music therapy practice. Furthermore, the research presents a humanistic rather than behavioural approach to creating and performing music with women in prison, thereby adding variety and depth to the sparse music therapy literature related to forensic health. More broadly, however, this research adds to the slim body of literature concerning women in prison by outlining a creative and powerful approach to helping such women improve their health and well-being.

Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Theses

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