SKAPANDE LÄRANDE - En studie av organisters uppfattningar om koralspel och koralimprovisation

Title: Learning and creating – A study of organists’ learning and creative processes in playing a hymn and a hymn prelude. In this study, I wanted to explore how organists experience the learning and creative processes in interpretation of written music and improvisation. The empirical study consisted of four organists playing a hymn prelude and a hymn, and the initial aim was to study individual variation of descriptions and experiences. The result points at common rather than varying views of the learning and creative processes. The participants all related their creative and learning activity to a congregational context, which can be thought of as a framework for the other results. These concern the relationship between interpretation and improvisation, the creative process and gender aspects. The participants described, both verbally and musically, interpretation and improvisation not as two separate areas, but as a whole. The creative process was described as consisting of three phases; the idea, the strategy and the implementation. In a gender perspective, interesting differences were found between men and women concerning their evaluation of their own playing and also concerning their conception of the creative process. It is argued that the professional role of these organists combines a dependence on and an independence of written music, and that this is part of the basis for musical literacy. The professional improvisatory tasks are seen as a reason for this profile, which is unique among classical musicians today. Areas for further research are suggested, for example a deeper study of the structures behind organists’ musical strategies, and aspects of the role and function of improvisation in musical tuition for other instruments than organ