Title
A three-part invention: Transcending Disciplinarity in Collaborative Study of
Performance
Submitted to CIM04, 28, October, 2003
Tania Lisboa
Royal College of Music, London, UK
Centre for the Study of Music Performance
tlisboa@rcm.ac.uk
Mary Crawford
Dept of Psychology, University Of Connecticut, USA
Mary.Crawford@Uconn.edu
Roger Chaffin
Dept of Psychology, University of Connecticut, USA
Roger.Chaffin@Uconn.edu
Desired mode of presentation
Talk
Overview
A performer, a cognitive psychologist and a social psychologist together study the
skills, cognitive mechanisms, and social construction of skilled performance.
Background in music psychology
Music practice provides an opportunity to observe expert problem solving and
memory in a situation that naturally provides a detailed behavioural record (e.g.,
Miklaszewski, 1989). By itself, however, the behavioural record of practice is
relatively uninformative. When combined with the musicians self-reports about
musical goals, however, practice can provide a compelling account of the creative
process of making music (Chaffin & Imreh, 2002; Chaffin, Imreh & Crawford, 2002).
Background in music performance
The empirical analysis of music practice and performance offers musicians the tools
for improving their playing and teaching (Parncutt & McPherson, 2002; Rink, 1995). A
musician who participates in research as both the subject of study and as a
collaborator must, however, choose between the two roles when they conflict.
Background in cultural studies
Interdisciplinary collaboration between a performer and a cognitive psychologist
creates dilemmas of meaning-making as the two negotiate the differences in
epistemology (science vs art), goals (production of knowledge vs aesthetic
experience), and subjectivity that they bring from their different disciplines (Harding,
1991).
Aims
We will give the first report of a study of a cello soloist (TL) learning and giving public
performances of a new piece. We aim to describe how a mutually satisfying account
of this process is negotiated between researcher and performer.
Main contribution and Implications
Musicology is traditionally multidisciplinary. However, transcending disciplinarity is
more difficult because it requires communication and meaning-making across
sometimes incompatible epistemological stances. This project aims to foster
interdisiplinarity through a reflexive interrogation of the collaborative process. Thus,
we describe not only the research project but the participants’ process of establishing
common ground and negotiating competing constructions of reality.
References
Chaffin, R. & Imreh, G. (2002). Practicing perfection: Piano performance as expert
memory. Psychological Science, 13, 342-349
Chaffin, R., Imreh, G., & Crawford, M. (2002). Practicing perfection: Memory and
piano performance. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Associates.
Harding, S. (1991). Whose science? Whose knowledge? Thinking from women’s
lives. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Miklaszewski, K. (1989). A case study of a pianist preparing a musical performance.
Psychology of Music, 17, 95-109.
Parncutt, R. & McPherson, G.E. The science and psychology of music performance:
Creative strategies for teaching and learning. New York: Oxford University
Press.
Rink, J. (1995). The practice of performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
First author
Name
Current position
Tania Lisboa
Professional performer and research associate in
psychology of music (Royal College of Music)
Psychology of music
Main research
disciplines
Main research areas
Cello performance, Music education
Relevant qualifications Ph.D. Music Performance: Sheffield University, 2001
MA Music Performance: City University, London,1992
Post Grad. Certificate, Advanced solo studies:
Guildhall School of Music and Drama, 1989
Selected performances Wigmore Hall, London - 1995, 2002
St Martin in the Fields, London - 1995-1996
Palacio Bellas Artes, Mexico City - 1998-1999
Teatro Municipal, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 1998-1999
Selected commercial
“Fauré: Les Soirées Intimes”, complete works for cello
CD
and piano, with Maria de La Pau Tortelier - (1997)
Second author
Name
Current position
Mary Crawford
Professor, Dept of Psychology, University of
Main research
disciplines
Main research areas
Relevant qualification
Selected books
Connecticut
Social psychology
Gender, language, communication
Ph.D. Psychology, University of Delaware, 1974
Author, Talking difference (Sage, 1995); Co-author,
Practicing perfection: Memory and piano
performance (Erlbaum, 2002); Co-Editor, Innovative
methods for feminist psychological research
(Cambridge University Press, 1999).
Membership of editorial Psychology of Women
Feminist Psychology
advisory boards
Third author
Name
Current position
Main research
disciplines
Main research areas
Relevant qualification
Book publications
Roger Chaffin
Professor, Dept of Psychology, University Of
Connecticut
Cognitive psychology
Musical performance, memory, language
Ph.D. Cognitive Psychology, University of Illinois,
1976.
Co-author, Practicing perfection: Memory and piano
performance (Erlbaum, 2002); Cognitive and
psychometric analysis of analogical problem solving
(Springer-Verlag, 1991); Memory in historical
perspective: The literature before Ebbinghaus
(Springer-Verlag, 1988)