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Touching sound—Connections on a creative spiral
127
Touching Sound Connections on a Creative Spiral Phil ELLIS
Introduction
Department of Arts Education, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom CV4 7AL
Touching Sound is the title of a project concerned with the learning process, music education and new technology. It is also the name of a suite of computer programs. Music in education can contribute to all areas of experience, including the mathematical, physical, technological, spiritual, but mostly to the aesthetic and creative, and human and social areas. With the child at the centre of the curriculum, music in education is concerned with enabling all children to participate in musical activities, and to realise their own musical thoughts and feelings through sound. Any technology must therefore be completely accessible to all children, whatever age or ability. There are many skills of the mind which are developed in this process--imagining, formulating, discriminating, selecting, rejecting, evaluating, ordering, structuring. The essence of good computer programs is one of simplicity, of ease of access, of enabling learning in more direct ways. Touching Sound turns the computer into a new musical instrument, providing new ways of creating and shaping sound, of playing sound, thus overcoming, but not devaluing the barriers of traditional techniques.
Keywords: Touching Sound, Music education, Creative learnhag, Educational software.
Phil Ellis was Head of Music at Notley High School during the seventies and contributed to the Schools Council Music Project, particularly in the areas of composing and electronic technology. He then became senior lecturer at Huddersfield Polytechnic, in 1979, in charge of the electro-acoustic.music studios and lecturing in composition. He is currently NCET Principal Research Fellow in Arts Education at the University of Warwick. Education & Computing 5 (1989) 127-132 Elsevier
It is significant that technological developments in many areas, including the business world, are beginning to reflect a recognition of the fact that people are more important than machines. A recent report from a management consultancy stated that:
"British firms are investing 1.9 billion pounds in total factory automation--and wasting nearly a third of it because they haven't put people first. Results are falling about 30 per cent below target in improving deadlines, quality, and stock control, because the process has been technology-led, not people-led." (Quoted by Peter Lange, Technology Editor, The Guardian, May 1989)
This failure to rate people higher than machines is common in all nations surveyed in the report. The difference in some--particularly J a p a n - - i s the realisation that "people give you quality, not machines alone". Music is concerned with quality, with aesthetic response in an abstract medium, one which is difficult, literally impossible, to get hold of. The mathematician Huntley [7] has identified three constituents of aesthetic appeal: surprise, at an unexpected encounter; - curiosity, a craving to know why; wonder, because the conviction grows stronger that we have chanced on an unexplored world, which appears to have no boundaries. Can new technology help us to generate knowledge and insight in this area of aesthetic appeal? The answer is that it can, and part of the design philosophy of Touching Sound was to bring the user into direct contact with creative potential. Touching Sound is a project concerned with the learning process, music education and new technology. It is also the name of a suite of computer programs which was developed as part of this project.
128
P. Ellis / Connections on a Creative Spiral
Music Education
Touching Sound
Music in education can contribute to all areas of experience, including the mathematical, physical, technological, spiritual, but mostly to the aesthetic and creative, and human and social areas of human experience. This contribution of music in education was identified in [1], one of a series of documents produced by Her Majesty's Inspectors of schools in Britain (HMSO). Historically, music has tended to be the province of a minority of children, those often referred to as 'gifted', or 'musical'. Performing skills tended to dominate the curriculum, supported by theoretical and historical studies. Yet, music is part of everyone's life, even if only indirectly. We can all respond to music and have musical thoughts. Recent developments, made possible through new technology, can enable everyone to realise those thoughts more easily. During the past few years, education in the U.K. has given children increasing responsibility for their learning. The child is now considered to be at the centre of the curriculum. In keeping with this, music in education is now concerned with enabling all children to participate in musical activities and to express their musical thoughts and feelings through sound. Music has become a practical curriculum subject, in which all children can succeed. Any new technology introduced to the music curriculum must therefore be accessible to all children, of whatever age or ability. If its use is too complex for all but a few 'computer-buffs', then it will not become an accepted addition to the classroom. A contemporary music curriculum now comprises three main areas: composing, performing and listening, and these activities are offered to all pupils, not as separate activities, but intimately connected. However, composing can be seen as central to the curriculum, calling on listening and performing as parts of the process. Composing is a design process which includes being creative with sound, using sound expressively, exploring and formulating musical ideas. Creativity itself can take many forms, but partly it has to do with making connections, sometimes between things where connections have not been made before.
Michie and Johnson [13] observe that Shakespeare can move us profoundly whilst apparently talking nonsense: " H o w sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night Become the touches of sweet harmony." [13, p. 31]
How can moonlight sleep? Or music creep in our ears? Is stillness soft? Or can harmony touch? But these seemingly nonsensical connections nevertheless move us deeply and enrich our experience--of times remembered, of the present, and potentially of the future, too. Touching Sound, as a title, also seems at first to lack connection. Imagine being able to explore sound, to shape it, to mould it, to fashion an object or instrument from it, as easily as exploring plasticine or clay--being able physically to touch sound. This was one of the first goals for Touching Sound: enabling all children to explore sound directly, without any intervening stage demanding instrumental skills or high-level technique. The ideals of the Touching Sound project were: - that the child should be at the centre of any educational experience; - that people are far more important than technology; - that music is a powerful way of providing an aesthetic education and should be available to all children, irrespective of age, ability or apparent aptitude.
T h e T o u c h i n g S o u n d Project
The project was devised jointly with the Music Adviser of the City of Birmingham. On the one hand, it aimed to build on the foundation of work carried out in Birmingham and, on the other, on results of twelve years of personal research and development work done in schools and higher education. A team of people was selected for the project. Teachers from primary, special and secondary education were selected on the basis of being
129
P. Ellis / Connections on a Creative Spiral
exemplary classroom practitioners. Some of these teachers, incidentally, had no experience of, or empathy with, new technology. Hardware was selected on the following criteria: - was it affordable by schools? - was it readily available? as the focus was music, was the sound quality good? did it have the potential to be accessible by all children, of whatever age or ability? Initially, teachers from a particular education phase (primary, special or secondary) met monthly in groups. A software design gradually evolved, one which always responded to the criticisms of the teachers and, more importantly, of the children from the range of schools involved. The software was continually being tested in classrooms and the results and responses regularly fed back at meetings. Do children enjoy using the program (boys as well as girls)? Does the computer itself, with its typewriter keyboard, inhibit musical activity? Does the software support learning? Does it support and develop practice specified in the curriculum? How can it integrate successfully into the classroom, without causing disruption? Does the software enhance learning? Can it only be used within the confines of one curriculum area or subject? Answers to these and many other questions were often critical to the design process. As a consequence, for a number of months the software was in a constant state of revision and development. Revised versions were fed back frequently to the teachers and children. The design of Touching Sound took shape in direct response to the needs and perceptions of all those involved. Essentially, a large number of children 'wrote' Touching Sound without knowing it, and created a program which can be used at all stages and all levels of ability. With this software, the elements of music, those features which contribute to the quality of a sound or instrument, can be explored directly. Timbre, tone colour, texture, volume, pitch, all can be accessed immediately, using joysticks or touch screen as the physical means of ' playing' these attributes, which can then be played on a 'piano-type' of keyboard, attached to a computer. Sounds can be discovered, explored and created. Such activity has also been found to stimulate language and communication skills and to contribute to many other curriculum areas.
T h e
Creative Learning Process
Often, there are artificial barriers between subjects, particularly in secondary schools, but creativity and the aesthetic response are common to all subjects. A scientist will often confess to a dependence on intuitive hunches or unexplained flashes of insight, and many scientific discoveries have aesthetic power. The discovery of the structure of D N A was a magical illumination, and many mathematicians and scientists admit to the importance of 'having beauty in one's equations'. By contrast, artists often rely on mathematical or scientific theories to structure their intuitions. Matisse observes that " i t is not instinct that composes, but intellect". Inspiration and discipline, and the aesthetic response, are part of all discovery and illuminate many areas of the curriculum. A consensus view of the creative process seems to indicate that there are three stages: (1) An initial stage of preparation, in which an idea or ideas are explored and data gathered. Experimentation is the main activity: a feedback
i
i
'
exploring I
t __
~
realismg
focus'ng~ I
I ,
I
I
I
I ~
I
~
I
,
exploring
focusing
,, / ~ ~ ~ i exploring
realising focusing
Figure 1. Feedback loop of exploration and experimentation.
130
P. Ellis / Connections on a Creative Spiral
loop of exploration and experimentation, of testing ideas and refining them (see Figure 1). (2) The second is one of incubation and focusing, including subconscious activity, where possibilities are sorted and additional avenues of further action investigated. New possibilities may need to be explored, providing a circle of exploration and refinement. (3) The final stage is one of realisation. This may come as a moment of inspiration, when all the accumulated data suddenly take shape, or make sense, or it may gradually take on its final form. This may lead to the actual construction of an artefact, the solving of the problem, the demonstration of the theorem or composition of a piece of music. When this stage is complete, the spiral is joined and another connection or circuit will have been made. The next step in the learning process involves the experience of previous work, with all the lessons of skill, technique and insight, being carried forward. This is both a model for learning (based on Bruner's spiral curriculum), and the model for the development of Touching Sound, with the evolving nature of its software.
Musical Skills Music is notorious for causing controversy. Many people 'know what they like', what they regard as 'good' music, yet at the same time may feel insecure because they are not able to perform well enough on an instrument. Touching Sound was designed to give access to sound in a variety of ways, without the prerequisite of a traditional instrumental technique, but at the same time
offering challenges to the traditional instrumentalist. There are many skills of the mind which are developed while using Touching Sound: imagining, formulating, discriminating, selecting, rejecting, evaluating, ordering, structuring. The program turns the computer into a new musical instrument, one which can easily be traditional, but also radically new. Children can as readily construct instruments to accompany a choir, as ones to evoke a range of atmospheres or moods. The program is designed to be used with a range of acoustic instruments, traditional and less conventional, never in a room solely dedicated to computers or other technological boxes. New ways of actually playing sound, to overcome, but not devalue the barrier of instrumental technique, were included in the program. Although there is a traditional-looking music keyboard, this can now be tuned to a whole range of scales, and can also be set to play differing sounds across its length. Alternatively, joysticks can be used to play sounds, but perhaps the most accessible way of all is via the touch screen, where we can indeed 'touch' sound! More importantly perhaps, the touch screen can bring a degree of choice and control to the severely handicapped, where this has not previously been possible. So, Touching Sound can be accessed by the musician with traditional skills and also by people with a variety of special needs.
Program Structure The overall structure of the program reflects a musical design process (see Figure 2). The initial
Assemble
J
["-'-~-erform '- L(Keyboard)
Keyboard
Mo, ing Combine Figure2. Structureof TouchingSound.
h
P. Ellis / Connections on a Creative Spiral
exploration of sound (via boxes '1-6', 'Assemble', or 'Combine') leads to the creation of new instruments which are stored in a 'Sound Set'. At first, these instruments will be discovered. But, gradually, as more refinement is required, the user can take more and more responsibility for the design of all aspects of any instrument. Live performance using instruments made in Touching Sound is quite possible, but a recording feature has also been included. In music, as in other subjects, it is important to be able to stand back and criticise one's work without simultaneously being involved in the process of creating it. As Wordsworth observed: "poetry is passion recollected in moments of tranquility", and so a 'rehearser' is included in the design, a facility for recording parts of a composition, so that objective criticism can be encouraged. We can thus see two main design functions being offered by the software. The first allows the user to build up an understanding and control of the medium of music, i.e., sound, initially through exploration and discovery, then through conceptualising, which means having a mental idea for a particular instrumental quality and being able to create it. This, of course, involves the user in all kinds of musical decisions, whilst working directly with the medium of music itself. Having had an idea for a product, for example, a composition, the second function is one of application: working at ways of combining instruments and devising how, what and when they will play, to produce the desired result. This dual process was described in [15], where the term primary was used for the growing control of the medium, and secondary for the application of that knowledge.
131
purpose and look right in a particular place--and to be right in one's judgement nine times out of ten: this is secondary education." [15, p. 112] A child's early efforts at painting or modelling with clay are often raw and clearly form part of a series of efforts towards greater mastery and control of the medium. So with music: the early stages of learning to control the medium of sound itself, and ways of producing a range of sounds (the primary definition), when combined with a series of efforts to order and compose with these accumulating skills, will produce a clear progression of growing manipulative skill and expressive purpose. We must be ready to accept and enjoy these early attempts just as much as more polished and accomplished work. Arguably, it is more important to become immersed in the early stages, for without these initial experiences there is no sure foundation for progression in composing, and no better way exists of fostering a developing sensitivity and appreciation of music in all its styles and cultures. So, Touching Sound is also a design spiral in which new instruments can be created in response to a particular need; these instruments are then used in a broader design concept: a musical composition. The knowledge and skills acquired or learnt from realising the composition (or product) then feed into another loop in the spiral, through the creation of a further, perhaps more ambitious, design problem. This is turn requires the creation of a new set of instruments in order to realise another composition, and so on.
Conclusion Stages in the Creative Process The Newsom report [15] returns to the analogy of clay: "To make a pottery bowl involvesconsiderableexperience of handling clay: in getting to know empirically how clay behaves when wet or dry, and gradually acquiring skill of hand and eye in making it obey the potter's will. All this gathering of experienceis learning of a primary kind whether the pupil is ten, twenty or forty years old. But the purposeful employmentof this skill to produce a bowl which will serve a special
There are computer program~ which purport to enable the user to 'compose' music, even when they know nothing about music! Can people produce 'poetry' or 'art' without experience of the medium, or indeed without having something to say, relevant to that medium? It is an appalling idea. Although we are attracted by programs which present music in a style with which we are familiar, and reject the unknown, this all too easily reinforces musical and cultural prejudice. It is processes that are more important for the development of the individual than any particular software product.
132
P. Ellis / Connections on a Creative Spiral
In music, computers have often been used in a confusing way, mistaking the symbol for the sound. Traditional Western ways of encoding performance instructions concentrate on a fixed system of pitch, of rhythm, of relative dynamic levels and approximate speeds. There is a great confusion between the representation of sound (notation) and the sound itself. When such notated instructions are realised in a mechanical way, as many so-called 'computer music' systems do, then the results are mechanical; they miss the very essence of music. At all stages, it is vital to program the machine to work in a way that fits in with how the human ear, eye and mind work. The focus of this paper has been on people and on the development of computer software to enable musical learning to take place in more direct ways. The most difficult task in the development of Touching Sound was to make it simple to u s e - - i t was very easy to make it difficult! There was no merit whatsoever in showing how 'clever' a machine could be. Schools can be places where knowledge is generated, as well as being passed on. We can utilise some machines in support of creativity, which is not the sole province of one curriculum area. All human activity is enhanced and enriched, even enabled, through creativity. Science, statistics, art, architecture, dance, design, maths, music--all areas of human experience can be supported in this way. Touching Sound was developed by a large team which brought together a wealth of
experience. It touches and explores the common area of creativity and makes connections on a creative spiral.
References [1] Curriculum Matters 2, The Curriculum from 5 to 16 (HMSO, 1985). [2] Curriculum Matters 4, Music from 5 to 16 (HMSO, 1985). [3] Curriculum Matters 15, Information Technology from 5 to 16 (HMSO, 1989). [41 P. Ellis, Out of Bounds (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1987). [5] R. Hammond, The Musician and the Micro (Blandford Press, 1983). [6] D. Hargreaves, The Developmental Psychology of Music (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1986). [7] H. Huntley, The Divine Porportion, A Study in Mathematical Beauty (Dover Publications, 1970). [8] Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art (Dover Publications, 1977). [9] P. Klee, On Modern Art (Faber & Faber, 1966). [10] A. Koestler, Janus, A Summing Up (Hutchinson & Co, 1978). [lll S. Langer, Philosophy in a New Key (Harvard University Press, 1942). [12] P. Manning, Electronic & Computer Music (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1985). [131 D. Michie and R. Johnson, The Creative Computer (Viking Penguin Inc., 1984). [14] M. Mcluhan, Understanding Media (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1964). [15] Newsom, Half Our Future (HMSO, 1963). [16] A. Storr, The Dynamics of Creation (Secher & Warburg, 1972). [17] R. Witkin, The Intelligence of Feeling (Heinemann, 1974).
Touching Sound Connections on a Creative Spiral Phil ELLIS
Introduction
Department of Arts Education, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom CV4 7AL
Touching Sound is the title of a project concerned with the learning process, music education and new technology. It is also the name of a suite of computer programs. Music in education can contribute to all areas of experience, including the mathematical, physical, technological, spiritual, but mostly to the aesthetic and creative, and human and social areas. With the child at the centre of the curriculum, music in education is concerned with enabling all children to participate in musical activities, and to realise their own musical thoughts and feelings through sound. Any technology must therefore be completely accessible to all children, whatever age or ability. There are many skills of the mind which are developed in this process--imagining, formulating, discriminating, selecting, rejecting, evaluating, ordering, structuring. The essence of good computer programs is one of simplicity, of ease of access, of enabling learning in more direct ways. Touching Sound turns the computer into a new musical instrument, providing new ways of creating and shaping sound, of playing sound, thus overcoming, but not devaluing the barriers of traditional techniques.
Keywords: Touching Sound, Music education, Creative learnhag, Educational software.
Phil Ellis was Head of Music at Notley High School during the seventies and contributed to the Schools Council Music Project, particularly in the areas of composing and electronic technology. He then became senior lecturer at Huddersfield Polytechnic, in 1979, in charge of the electro-acoustic.music studios and lecturing in composition. He is currently NCET Principal Research Fellow in Arts Education at the University of Warwick. Education & Computing 5 (1989) 127-132 Elsevier
It is significant that technological developments in many areas, including the business world, are beginning to reflect a recognition of the fact that people are more important than machines. A recent report from a management consultancy stated that:
"British firms are investing 1.9 billion pounds in total factory automation--and wasting nearly a third of it because they haven't put people first. Results are falling about 30 per cent below target in improving deadlines, quality, and stock control, because the process has been technology-led, not people-led." (Quoted by Peter Lange, Technology Editor, The Guardian, May 1989)
This failure to rate people higher than machines is common in all nations surveyed in the report. The difference in some--particularly J a p a n - - i s the realisation that "people give you quality, not machines alone". Music is concerned with quality, with aesthetic response in an abstract medium, one which is difficult, literally impossible, to get hold of. The mathematician Huntley [7] has identified three constituents of aesthetic appeal: surprise, at an unexpected encounter; - curiosity, a craving to know why; wonder, because the conviction grows stronger that we have chanced on an unexplored world, which appears to have no boundaries. Can new technology help us to generate knowledge and insight in this area of aesthetic appeal? The answer is that it can, and part of the design philosophy of Touching Sound was to bring the user into direct contact with creative potential. Touching Sound is a project concerned with the learning process, music education and new technology. It is also the name of a suite of computer programs which was developed as part of this project.
128
P. Ellis / Connections on a Creative Spiral
Music Education
Touching Sound
Music in education can contribute to all areas of experience, including the mathematical, physical, technological, spiritual, but mostly to the aesthetic and creative, and human and social areas of human experience. This contribution of music in education was identified in [1], one of a series of documents produced by Her Majesty's Inspectors of schools in Britain (HMSO). Historically, music has tended to be the province of a minority of children, those often referred to as 'gifted', or 'musical'. Performing skills tended to dominate the curriculum, supported by theoretical and historical studies. Yet, music is part of everyone's life, even if only indirectly. We can all respond to music and have musical thoughts. Recent developments, made possible through new technology, can enable everyone to realise those thoughts more easily. During the past few years, education in the U.K. has given children increasing responsibility for their learning. The child is now considered to be at the centre of the curriculum. In keeping with this, music in education is now concerned with enabling all children to participate in musical activities and to express their musical thoughts and feelings through sound. Music has become a practical curriculum subject, in which all children can succeed. Any new technology introduced to the music curriculum must therefore be accessible to all children, of whatever age or ability. If its use is too complex for all but a few 'computer-buffs', then it will not become an accepted addition to the classroom. A contemporary music curriculum now comprises three main areas: composing, performing and listening, and these activities are offered to all pupils, not as separate activities, but intimately connected. However, composing can be seen as central to the curriculum, calling on listening and performing as parts of the process. Composing is a design process which includes being creative with sound, using sound expressively, exploring and formulating musical ideas. Creativity itself can take many forms, but partly it has to do with making connections, sometimes between things where connections have not been made before.
Michie and Johnson [13] observe that Shakespeare can move us profoundly whilst apparently talking nonsense: " H o w sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night Become the touches of sweet harmony." [13, p. 31]
How can moonlight sleep? Or music creep in our ears? Is stillness soft? Or can harmony touch? But these seemingly nonsensical connections nevertheless move us deeply and enrich our experience--of times remembered, of the present, and potentially of the future, too. Touching Sound, as a title, also seems at first to lack connection. Imagine being able to explore sound, to shape it, to mould it, to fashion an object or instrument from it, as easily as exploring plasticine or clay--being able physically to touch sound. This was one of the first goals for Touching Sound: enabling all children to explore sound directly, without any intervening stage demanding instrumental skills or high-level technique. The ideals of the Touching Sound project were: - that the child should be at the centre of any educational experience; - that people are far more important than technology; - that music is a powerful way of providing an aesthetic education and should be available to all children, irrespective of age, ability or apparent aptitude.
T h e T o u c h i n g S o u n d Project
The project was devised jointly with the Music Adviser of the City of Birmingham. On the one hand, it aimed to build on the foundation of work carried out in Birmingham and, on the other, on results of twelve years of personal research and development work done in schools and higher education. A team of people was selected for the project. Teachers from primary, special and secondary education were selected on the basis of being
129
P. Ellis / Connections on a Creative Spiral
exemplary classroom practitioners. Some of these teachers, incidentally, had no experience of, or empathy with, new technology. Hardware was selected on the following criteria: - was it affordable by schools? - was it readily available? as the focus was music, was the sound quality good? did it have the potential to be accessible by all children, of whatever age or ability? Initially, teachers from a particular education phase (primary, special or secondary) met monthly in groups. A software design gradually evolved, one which always responded to the criticisms of the teachers and, more importantly, of the children from the range of schools involved. The software was continually being tested in classrooms and the results and responses regularly fed back at meetings. Do children enjoy using the program (boys as well as girls)? Does the computer itself, with its typewriter keyboard, inhibit musical activity? Does the software support learning? Does it support and develop practice specified in the curriculum? How can it integrate successfully into the classroom, without causing disruption? Does the software enhance learning? Can it only be used within the confines of one curriculum area or subject? Answers to these and many other questions were often critical to the design process. As a consequence, for a number of months the software was in a constant state of revision and development. Revised versions were fed back frequently to the teachers and children. The design of Touching Sound took shape in direct response to the needs and perceptions of all those involved. Essentially, a large number of children 'wrote' Touching Sound without knowing it, and created a program which can be used at all stages and all levels of ability. With this software, the elements of music, those features which contribute to the quality of a sound or instrument, can be explored directly. Timbre, tone colour, texture, volume, pitch, all can be accessed immediately, using joysticks or touch screen as the physical means of ' playing' these attributes, which can then be played on a 'piano-type' of keyboard, attached to a computer. Sounds can be discovered, explored and created. Such activity has also been found to stimulate language and communication skills and to contribute to many other curriculum areas.
T h e
Creative Learning Process
Often, there are artificial barriers between subjects, particularly in secondary schools, but creativity and the aesthetic response are common to all subjects. A scientist will often confess to a dependence on intuitive hunches or unexplained flashes of insight, and many scientific discoveries have aesthetic power. The discovery of the structure of D N A was a magical illumination, and many mathematicians and scientists admit to the importance of 'having beauty in one's equations'. By contrast, artists often rely on mathematical or scientific theories to structure their intuitions. Matisse observes that " i t is not instinct that composes, but intellect". Inspiration and discipline, and the aesthetic response, are part of all discovery and illuminate many areas of the curriculum. A consensus view of the creative process seems to indicate that there are three stages: (1) An initial stage of preparation, in which an idea or ideas are explored and data gathered. Experimentation is the main activity: a feedback
i
i
'
exploring I
t __
~
realismg
focus'ng~ I
I ,
I
I
I
I ~
I
~
I
,
exploring
focusing
,, / ~ ~ ~ i exploring
realising focusing
Figure 1. Feedback loop of exploration and experimentation.
130
P. Ellis / Connections on a Creative Spiral
loop of exploration and experimentation, of testing ideas and refining them (see Figure 1). (2) The second is one of incubation and focusing, including subconscious activity, where possibilities are sorted and additional avenues of further action investigated. New possibilities may need to be explored, providing a circle of exploration and refinement. (3) The final stage is one of realisation. This may come as a moment of inspiration, when all the accumulated data suddenly take shape, or make sense, or it may gradually take on its final form. This may lead to the actual construction of an artefact, the solving of the problem, the demonstration of the theorem or composition of a piece of music. When this stage is complete, the spiral is joined and another connection or circuit will have been made. The next step in the learning process involves the experience of previous work, with all the lessons of skill, technique and insight, being carried forward. This is both a model for learning (based on Bruner's spiral curriculum), and the model for the development of Touching Sound, with the evolving nature of its software.
Musical Skills Music is notorious for causing controversy. Many people 'know what they like', what they regard as 'good' music, yet at the same time may feel insecure because they are not able to perform well enough on an instrument. Touching Sound was designed to give access to sound in a variety of ways, without the prerequisite of a traditional instrumental technique, but at the same time
offering challenges to the traditional instrumentalist. There are many skills of the mind which are developed while using Touching Sound: imagining, formulating, discriminating, selecting, rejecting, evaluating, ordering, structuring. The program turns the computer into a new musical instrument, one which can easily be traditional, but also radically new. Children can as readily construct instruments to accompany a choir, as ones to evoke a range of atmospheres or moods. The program is designed to be used with a range of acoustic instruments, traditional and less conventional, never in a room solely dedicated to computers or other technological boxes. New ways of actually playing sound, to overcome, but not devalue the barrier of instrumental technique, were included in the program. Although there is a traditional-looking music keyboard, this can now be tuned to a whole range of scales, and can also be set to play differing sounds across its length. Alternatively, joysticks can be used to play sounds, but perhaps the most accessible way of all is via the touch screen, where we can indeed 'touch' sound! More importantly perhaps, the touch screen can bring a degree of choice and control to the severely handicapped, where this has not previously been possible. So, Touching Sound can be accessed by the musician with traditional skills and also by people with a variety of special needs.
Program Structure The overall structure of the program reflects a musical design process (see Figure 2). The initial
Assemble
J
["-'-~-erform '- L(Keyboard)
Keyboard
Mo, ing Combine Figure2. Structureof TouchingSound.
h
P. Ellis / Connections on a Creative Spiral
exploration of sound (via boxes '1-6', 'Assemble', or 'Combine') leads to the creation of new instruments which are stored in a 'Sound Set'. At first, these instruments will be discovered. But, gradually, as more refinement is required, the user can take more and more responsibility for the design of all aspects of any instrument. Live performance using instruments made in Touching Sound is quite possible, but a recording feature has also been included. In music, as in other subjects, it is important to be able to stand back and criticise one's work without simultaneously being involved in the process of creating it. As Wordsworth observed: "poetry is passion recollected in moments of tranquility", and so a 'rehearser' is included in the design, a facility for recording parts of a composition, so that objective criticism can be encouraged. We can thus see two main design functions being offered by the software. The first allows the user to build up an understanding and control of the medium of music, i.e., sound, initially through exploration and discovery, then through conceptualising, which means having a mental idea for a particular instrumental quality and being able to create it. This, of course, involves the user in all kinds of musical decisions, whilst working directly with the medium of music itself. Having had an idea for a product, for example, a composition, the second function is one of application: working at ways of combining instruments and devising how, what and when they will play, to produce the desired result. This dual process was described in [15], where the term primary was used for the growing control of the medium, and secondary for the application of that knowledge.
131
purpose and look right in a particular place--and to be right in one's judgement nine times out of ten: this is secondary education." [15, p. 112] A child's early efforts at painting or modelling with clay are often raw and clearly form part of a series of efforts towards greater mastery and control of the medium. So with music: the early stages of learning to control the medium of sound itself, and ways of producing a range of sounds (the primary definition), when combined with a series of efforts to order and compose with these accumulating skills, will produce a clear progression of growing manipulative skill and expressive purpose. We must be ready to accept and enjoy these early attempts just as much as more polished and accomplished work. Arguably, it is more important to become immersed in the early stages, for without these initial experiences there is no sure foundation for progression in composing, and no better way exists of fostering a developing sensitivity and appreciation of music in all its styles and cultures. So, Touching Sound is also a design spiral in which new instruments can be created in response to a particular need; these instruments are then used in a broader design concept: a musical composition. The knowledge and skills acquired or learnt from realising the composition (or product) then feed into another loop in the spiral, through the creation of a further, perhaps more ambitious, design problem. This is turn requires the creation of a new set of instruments in order to realise another composition, and so on.
Conclusion Stages in the Creative Process The Newsom report [15] returns to the analogy of clay: "To make a pottery bowl involvesconsiderableexperience of handling clay: in getting to know empirically how clay behaves when wet or dry, and gradually acquiring skill of hand and eye in making it obey the potter's will. All this gathering of experienceis learning of a primary kind whether the pupil is ten, twenty or forty years old. But the purposeful employmentof this skill to produce a bowl which will serve a special
There are computer program~ which purport to enable the user to 'compose' music, even when they know nothing about music! Can people produce 'poetry' or 'art' without experience of the medium, or indeed without having something to say, relevant to that medium? It is an appalling idea. Although we are attracted by programs which present music in a style with which we are familiar, and reject the unknown, this all too easily reinforces musical and cultural prejudice. It is processes that are more important for the development of the individual than any particular software product.
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P. Ellis / Connections on a Creative Spiral
In music, computers have often been used in a confusing way, mistaking the symbol for the sound. Traditional Western ways of encoding performance instructions concentrate on a fixed system of pitch, of rhythm, of relative dynamic levels and approximate speeds. There is a great confusion between the representation of sound (notation) and the sound itself. When such notated instructions are realised in a mechanical way, as many so-called 'computer music' systems do, then the results are mechanical; they miss the very essence of music. At all stages, it is vital to program the machine to work in a way that fits in with how the human ear, eye and mind work. The focus of this paper has been on people and on the development of computer software to enable musical learning to take place in more direct ways. The most difficult task in the development of Touching Sound was to make it simple to u s e - - i t was very easy to make it difficult! There was no merit whatsoever in showing how 'clever' a machine could be. Schools can be places where knowledge is generated, as well as being passed on. We can utilise some machines in support of creativity, which is not the sole province of one curriculum area. All human activity is enhanced and enriched, even enabled, through creativity. Science, statistics, art, architecture, dance, design, maths, music--all areas of human experience can be supported in this way. Touching Sound was developed by a large team which brought together a wealth of
experience. It touches and explores the common area of creativity and makes connections on a creative spiral.
References [1] Curriculum Matters 2, The Curriculum from 5 to 16 (HMSO, 1985). [2] Curriculum Matters 4, Music from 5 to 16 (HMSO, 1985). [3] Curriculum Matters 15, Information Technology from 5 to 16 (HMSO, 1989). [41 P. Ellis, Out of Bounds (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1987). [5] R. Hammond, The Musician and the Micro (Blandford Press, 1983). [6] D. Hargreaves, The Developmental Psychology of Music (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1986). [7] H. Huntley, The Divine Porportion, A Study in Mathematical Beauty (Dover Publications, 1970). [8] Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art (Dover Publications, 1977). [9] P. Klee, On Modern Art (Faber & Faber, 1966). [10] A. Koestler, Janus, A Summing Up (Hutchinson & Co, 1978). [lll S. Langer, Philosophy in a New Key (Harvard University Press, 1942). [12] P. Manning, Electronic & Computer Music (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1985). [131 D. Michie and R. Johnson, The Creative Computer (Viking Penguin Inc., 1984). [14] M. Mcluhan, Understanding Media (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1964). [15] Newsom, Half Our Future (HMSO, 1963). [16] A. Storr, The Dynamics of Creation (Secher & Warburg, 1972). [17] R. Witkin, The Intelligence of Feeling (Heinemann, 1974).