Musical Thinking as Exemplified in Music Criticism
Richardson, Carol Peterson
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/70864
Description
Title
Musical Thinking as Exemplified in Music Criticism
Author(s)
Richardson, Carol Peterson
Issue Date
1988
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Colwell, Richard J.
Department of Study
Music
Discipline
Music Education
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ed.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Education, Music
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to consider the thought processes involved in the formulation of written music criticism. Using John Dewey's definition of thinking as a basis, the works of metacritics Francis Sparshott, Theodore M. Greene, and D. W. Gotshalk and critics Virgil Thomson and M. D. Calvocoressi were surveyed, and their outlines of the critical process were used to develop a paradigm for the thought process involved in the formulation of music criticism. Thirty pieces of written music criticism from the work of six music critics were randomly seclected and the critic's statements were categorized according to the proposed paradigm. The statements from a stream of consciousness narrative produced by a music critic while listening to an orchestral concert were then categorized according to the paradigm, and a comparison was made between the thought process revealed by the written criticism and the stream of consciousness narrative.
Evidence was found in the written criticism to support the components of the paradigm, and further evidence supporting the paradigm was found in the stream of consciousness narrative. It was also found that the musical thinking involved in the formulation of music criticism is a product of the critic's funded experience and has distinct components of sensitivity/feeling, knowledge/education, and imagination. Further processes involved were identified as expectation, comparison, prediction, and evaluation, and evidence was found to support the Deweyan notion of thinking as a nonlinear, nonlogical process.
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