PART THREE: FINDINGS, DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
9. EXPLORING THE NATURE OF CHILDREN'S CREATIVE INTERACTIONS IN MUSIC
This chapter presents the findings of the study relating to the first subsidiary question, i.e. about the different kinds of interaction which take place in children's collaborative creative work. In the following sections I describe, analyse and discuss a number of creative episodes involving nonverbal, musical and verbal interactions. I then consider the role of interpersonal relationships and power relationships in shaping children's interactions. The chapter closes with the distinction between cooperative and collaborative as functional to identify different kinds of division of labour in children's collective activity.
Of course, each of the reported creative instances can be relevant to diverse standpoints, and in the text I may refer back to some examples previously examined under a different light. The reader may wish to take the following as a 'cumulative picture' (the expression is from Burnard's thesis, 1999) of how these children's creative interactions appeared.
9.1 Communication media (bodily, musical, verbal interactions)
A starting point for categorising different kinds of interaction is to take into account children's observable behaviour and the media of expression and communication they used in their exchanges. In the following I distinguish body-based interactions – paraverbal and nonverbal means of communication, embodied interactions in movement/dance, and embodied musical communication – musical interactions – different ways of relating to each other in term of musical roles and intentions – and verbal interactions – the ways children used talk in the negotiation of decisions and in the expression of ideas and concepts.9.1.1 Bodily interactions
9.1.1.1 Nonverbal, body-based communication
Perhaps the best example of interaction based on paralinguistic and nonverbal means is 'moon and aliens', where the emotional tone of voice, pitch contour and loudness,
together with facial expression, bodily gestures and movement contribute to the liveliness of the exchange. Children were working on 'iconic' improvisations representing with onomatopoeic sounds some objects of reality as a way to introduce the idea of
'landscape', and he chooses the moon, on which he puts an alien. After a first trial we decide that some children will make with me the sound of the moon, while Flavio and Lorenzo decide to play the aliens with Valentina. The ensuing improvisation is
exhilarating:
N. 1 "Moon and aliens" (improvisation voice and movement)
On the background of the quiet sound of the moon three aliens meet, start communicating, and end up discussing animatedly in their strange language (https://vimeo.com/104223791, dvd.01). The emotional impact of the
improvisation is so strong that Flavio goes on 'quarrelling' with Lorenzo and Sonia, fully identified with his role as alien (https://vimeo.com/104223831, dvd.02)
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There are no spoken words in this improvisation, so the interaction occurs purely at the level of expressions, intentions, and emotional states. Both Flavio and Lorenzo are communicating with their whole body in their vocal/physical interaction. In the swift turn- taking of this 'dialogue' there is a strong dynamic development. Indeed, the unexpected escalation has a theatrical effect and brings the group to laugh. The starting idea was Flavio's and the group has realised it in a funny way – he later mentioned this as a significant moment for him.
A question with regard to this kind of process: whose creativity is this? We – here I mean both children and teachers – are all involved in a group creative process, in which each of us added their piece to a group construction which proved to be enjoyable for all. This is a good instance of 'ideas germinating in the interaction', where novel ideas appear for the first time and are taking shape here and now, and there is a good balance of emotion and cognition, individual and group, structure and free exploration. A collaborative success.
9.1.1.2 Embodied interactions (movement-dance)
In the course of the project children experienced movement in a variety of ways, both as a preparatory and complementary part to creative musical processes. Through movement games they could
build the group and facilitate relationships
open or close a phase of work – see for example here an instance of dancing as a joyful outburst of group energy at the end of a session
listen and coordinate their invented whole-body movements with an external source – e.g. 'filling the hole' in a rhythm pattern by improvising body shapes in the rests (https://vimeo.com/104431255, dvd.04)
interpret through movement specific parts within the music, as a sort of Dalcrozian 'active listening' exercise. Here (https://vimeo.com/104224033, dvd.05) Chiara and Fabiana as a duo match their movements to the sax melody in the
foreground, Giacomo and Sonia independently dance the semiquavers of the rhythmic accompaniment, Lorenzo presumably follows that same part by kicking on the accent, while Sandra and Flavio move to the background string drone. Alessandra appears to be dancing and curiously observing the others.
Many times, single children were asked to present the movement they had invented so that the group could imitate it. This way, different ideas were shared, discussed, made clear or developed, with the added satisfaction of seeing one's own movement
acknowledged and performed by the whole group. Thus, interactions among children were occurring also at a higher timescale, as over time children constructed a shared body of ideas and experiences related to movement, music, and individual invention.
An example of embodied interactions in choreographical performance is the following. In session 13 and 14 children worked on composing a movement sequence based on graphic notation. After having analysed the elements of the score drawn by the co- teacher on the whiteboard (see Figure 16), children split in two small groups and translated the graphical structure into a sequence of movements, initially accompanied with voice. Out of the same stimulus two choreographies took shape which interpreted in different ways the visual signs.
I concentrate here on the bodily interactions during the performance. Later on I will come back to this episode to analyse the interactions during the process of composition.
N. 2 Composition of a movement sequence based on graphic notation