This timely volume builds on Pamela Burnard's (Reference BURNARD2012) argument that musicians embody and pioneer multiple creativities in their real-world practices. Extending this idea to higher music education, the volume sets out to inform institutional change through bringing together diverse perspectives on teaching and learning practices that support and enable multiple creativities. In doing so, it makes a considered and valuable contribution to the field, recognising the imperative for constant innovation and reflection in the education of professional musicians.
At its outset, the editors acknowledge the challenges posed by their quest, including tensions between rapidly changing real-world practices and traditional academic discourse, as well as increasing educational standardisation and fear of market competition. These challenges are contextualised in the introductory chapter, which considers the fields of power at play in music and in music education, with the editors concluding that there is an imperative for introducing new musical creativities into higher music education. Drawing upon a diverse pool of international contributing authors, the remainder of the volume responds through three main sections: Experiments in Learning, Experiments in Teaching and Engaging Technologies.
Dawn Bennett and her colleagues begin by considering how students, rather than educators, think about and understand creativities (Chapter 2). Based on an undirected discussion between higher music education students, the authors discuss the idea that creativity is positioned by students as an act of rule-breaking, particularly in regards to their undergraduate programme. Arguing that ‘breaking the rules is a central component of the development and sustainability of careers’ (p. 31), Bennett et al. propose that higher music education ensures the provision of open and transparent spaces for students to reconsider and reinvent their understandings of creativities. Indeed, others have made similar arguments for the introduction of new spaces into higher music education, allowing opportunities for learning that prioritise creativities and risk-taking (Perkins, Reference PERKINS2013).
Joe Bennett provides an example of such a space in his exposition of creativities in popular songwriting curricula (Chapter 3). Highlighting the importance of enabling a safe and supportive learning environment for peer critique, he writes of strategies that assume songs to be a work-in-progress (rather than a finished product) and that prioritise constructive language and explicit ideas for future editing. Similarly, Donna Weston and Tim Byron (Chapter 4) argue for spaces of creative critical listening within a Bachelor of Popular Music programme, facilitating opportunities for students to develop an understanding, over time, of how to use critical listening skills to enhance their creative practices. Finally, Elizabeth Dobson presents a space of extracurricular interdisciplinary collaboration known as CollabHub, which brings together students from different degree programmes in collaborative work outside of the curriculum and including graduates and local professionals (Chapter 5). Described by one participant as a ‘grey area’ that bridges formal and social environments (p. 88), CollabHub gives permission to play, fostering risk-taking, freedom from assessment and the opportunity to see different perspectives and experience new musical and social connections.
The volume moves at this point to the second main section, on Experiments in Teaching. To divide the chapters thus provides something of a puzzle, given the rich implications of the content in both sections for teaching and learning. Nonetheless, this section continues to offer rich inspiration for new spaces in which students can explore multiple creativities. Sue Miller provides an intricately argued call for the study of both theoretical and practical improvisation to take centre-stage in higher music education (Chapter 6), a point pursued by Esmée Olthuis, who posits that improvisation can foster musical leadership and critical skills of self-reflection (Chapter 7). Susan Helfter and Beatriz Ilari turn our attention towards what they term ‘empathic creativity’, developed through university-community partnerships that support music students learning and teaching in local communities (Chapter 8).
Indeed, music students need to constantly find ways of engaging with new audiences, and as Helfter and Ilari demonstrate, doing so can facilitate a space ‘to try new things, take chances, experiment and realize for themselves what they know and do not know’ (p. 153). Taking this point further, Lindy Joubert and Violeta Schubert argue for the importance of what they term communal creativities that, in enabling in-situ intercultural musical interactions, can change the ways in which we view behaviours, actions and beliefs (Chapter 9). Finally, António Ângelo Vasconcelos echoes Elizabeth Dobson's ‘grey area’, considering the occupation of border territories in the composition of contemporary art music (Chapter 10).
The final section of the volume turns to Engaging Technologies, responding to the creativities afforded by technological advances. Andrew King highlights the role that technology is playing in facilitating studio creativities in higher education, enabling new means of capturing live performance and/or composing (Chapter 11). Leah Kardos reminds us that technology affords online spaces for collaborative creativities, breaking down boundaries between different musical specialisms and providing new ways for musicians to connect with each other and promote and enhance their work (Chapter 12). Jennifer Rowley and her colleagues complete the section with an example of a final space for learning, facilitated in this instance by ePortfolios (Chapter 13). Demonstrating that ePortfolios can raise students’ career awareness, the authors illustrate how ePortfolios can effectively support students in creatively documenting, and reflecting upon, their professional development.
Bringing the book to its conclusion (Chapter 14), the editors themselves recognise a central challenge facing the volume; that there remain obstacles to the pace at which institutional change in higher music education is moving. They are judicious to suggest that ‘leadership creativity’ is an important change agent, and leaders who embrace multiple creativities in their own and their institution's practices will certainly help to drive forward change. Throughout the volume, however, more in-depth scrutiny of the structural constraints facing the sorts of initiatives presented – and discussion of how to address resistance or even hostility to new ideas and practices – would help to enhance understanding of the cultural milieu in which change agendas must operate. Indeed, as Elizabeth Dobson suggests, we face the challenge of students self-selecting to engage in anything other than their core programme requirements. While local implementation of change practices may yield promising results, we should remain mindful of barriers to individual and institutional participation, working to find ways of understanding and removing these. Further research will play an important role here, also bringing into focus research creativities; the creativities enabled and developed through engaging in applied research in higher music education.
Returning to the need for new spaces of learning within higher music education, this volume offers the reader multiple sources of inspiration. While benefitting from an international and multidisciplinary authorship, the chapters are woven together by the recurring theme of risk-taking, prioritising experiences that take students out of their comfort zones to explore new ideas and practices. One of the key strengths of the volume lies in the diversity of practices showcased, offering not only food for thought amongst those involved in teaching and learning, but also tangible ideas for real-world applications. Notwithstanding the challenges of institutional reform, this volume will go a long way to sparking discussion, innovation and indeed creativities among those of us working in higher music education.
