Biography,identity,improvisation,sound: Intersections of personal and social identity through improvisation

Introduction

No musician will doubt the fact that improvisation forms a key part of musical artistry, and that the ability to improvise is hugely important for many reasons. Improvisation is a concept that incorporates a multiplicity of musical meanings, behaviours and practices (Kenny and Gellrich, 2002). However, central to the concept is the understanding that all improvisation involves a highly reflexive process, requiring self-awareness alongside the ability to be present in the moment (Smilde, 2009a: 62). This aligns with the notion that improvisation is ‘a performance art par excellence, requiring not only a lifetime of preparation across a broad range of musical and non-musical formative experiences, but also a sophisticated and eclectic skill base’ (Kenny and Gellrich, 2002: 117).

The multi-faceted nature of improvisation addressed in this essay relates to its strong connection to identity. From this perspective, the essay explores ways in which improvisation may bring together personal and social identity, evidenced for example in contexts where musicians, engaging in musical improvisation, identify with ‘the other’. Two different completed studies are considered. The first study deals with biographical research amongst professional musicians; the second study entails ethnographic research illuminating a practice where professional musicians work with people with dementia and their caregivers.

Biographical research which was conducted into the relationship between the lives, education and career development of professional musicians (Smilde, 2009a, 2009b) demonstrated the huge importance of improvisation as a means of self-expression, as an educational tool, and also as a way to reduce performance anxiety. This study demonstrated that improvisation connected powerfully to musicians’ identity, both personal and professional, particularly in relation to their expressivity, musical communication and conversation, social learning and sense of artistic and professional ‘ownership’. Musically, the concept of sound served as a strong metaphor for identity.

Ethnographic research conducted as part of ‘Music for Life’, a project of Wigmore Hall Learning in London (Smilde et al., 2014), where musicians work collaboratively in creative music workshops with people living with dementia and their caregivers, shed light on the use of improvisation as an expression of the identity of ‘the other’ (i.e. the person with dementia). What emerged was that the ‘applied’ or ‘person-centred’ improvisation used here reflected the identity of the other, and made the musicians wonder what sound they could use to connect with and reflect the personhoods of those with dementia.

This essay brings together the exposition of improvisation from the perspectives of these two studies to draw out the concept of improvisation as a means of communication that interconnects personal and social dimensions of identity. To do this, the essay considers two particular approaches to theorising identity, which appear to coalesce in the practice of improvisation. The first, which emerges in the first place from the practice of ‘finding the person behind the dementia’ through person-centred improvisation, is Georg Herbert Mead’s perspectives on identity (1934/1967). Mead distinguishes between the personal ‘I’ and the social ‘Me’ and points out that both aspects are ‘essential to the self in its fullest expression’ (1967: 199). The second is Paul Ricoeur’s concept of ‘oneself as other’ (1992). Critical reflection on the work of Mead and Ricoeur points to significant relationships between the research outcomes of the two studies, and suggests that in the realm of improvisation the personal ‘I’ and the social ‘Me’ are closely interconnected.

All in all, the aim of this essay then is to take a step towards an enriched conceptual understanding of identity for musicians and of the way in which this may be explored and expressed through improvisation in different contexts.

Although improvisation is clearly considered a very important performance art in some contexts, and undoubtedly is a crucial skill for community engagement through music, it is still generally not high on the agenda of higher music education, particularly in conservatoires. Research conducted by the European Association of Conservatoires into musicians’ needs for professional development, musicians’ employers’ requests, and conservatoires’ responses to this (AEC, 2007; Lafourcade and Smilde, 2001), indicate a clear need for, yet marginalisation of, improvisation. This essay therefore closes with a strong plea for improvisation to be positioned in the core of the curriculum for today’s professional musician.

Transformative learning and theories of self-identity

Literature on identity is abundant and this essay does not attempt to review the whole domain. Rather it explores specific concepts relating to identity that seem to be critical to the consideration of the improvisation practices that provide the initial research material for the essay. In the first place, the notion of ‘transformative learning’ needs to be addressed, as this provides a key bridge within the improvisation practices themselves between the different elements of self-identity discussed. Transformative learning, as defined by Mezirow (1990), can be considered as learning through critical reflection on one’s (life) experiences, changing one’s frame of reference or ‘a way of knowing’ (Kegan, 2009: 45). It is about the potential of musicians to change their view on the world and to look at a situation with new eyes, and often through the eyes of the other. This is a key condition for musicians engaging with different audiences and relates to the need to connect to the social context.

In addition, the theories of self-identity of George Herbert Mead (1934/1967) and Paul Ricoeur (1992), are significant. The point of departure for Mead’s analysis of the self is the crucial importance of social experience:

[The self] is not initially there at birth, but arises in the process of social experience and activity, that is, develops in the given individual as a result of his relations to the process as a whole, and to other individuals within that process (Mead, 1967: 168).

Ricoeur (1992) makes a similar distinction: he relates to what Anthony Giddens (1991) calls ‘selfhood’ (the ‘I’ of Mead), as the ipse identity. ‘Ipse’, Latin for him or herself, expresses one’s unique individuality. Ricoeur then uses the idem identity (‘Idem’ being Latin for ‘the same’) to delineate something akin to Mead’s social ‘Me’. ‘Idem’, says Ricoeur, is the type of identity that can be referred to as ‘sameness’. Ricoeur goes on to connect ipse identity and idem identity, the ‘I’ and the ‘Me’, through the notion of narrative identity, which he calls ‘a dialectic of sameness and selfhood’ (Ricoeur, 1992: 140). Thus narrative identity is, according to Ricoeur, a dialectic of the ‘Me’ and ‘I’. The relationship between transformative learning and both Mead and Ricoeur’s concepts of self-identity lies at the heart of the following exploration of two studies involving musical improvisation.

Improvisation and biography

Improvisation has profound meaning and significance for musicians from the perspective of their personal and professional identity, which tend to be deeply intertwined. This was demonstrated clearly through biographical research looking at lifelong learning processes of professional musicians (Smilde, 2009a, 2009b). Using a methodological approach of narrative biographical interviews ¹ with professional musicians from different countries, age categories, backgrounds and professional practices, this research illuminated in particular the interconnected relationships between musicians’ life span, educational span, and the development of their musical careers.

Through these biographical interviews I learned much about how these musicians started their music-making during childhood, how their period at the conservatoire evolved, and how their professional lives developed. The stories were inevitably diverse. A particularly striking finding was the extremely important role of improvisation. Nearly all the musicians whom I interviewed improvised spontaneously from early childhood onwards: as soon as they had access to an instrument, for instance when there was a piano at home, they improvised. However, once formal music education came into play, for example instrumental lessons, their teacher seldom gave any attention to improvisation. For the most part teachers had no idea how to deal with their pupils’ eagerness to improvise and some of them even went so far as to forbid it. Consequently, nearly all of the interviewed musicians stopped improvising as soon as they received formal tuition.

Interestingly however, quite a number of the musicians pursued their own development of improvisation at some later point, outside their formal tuition path. These ‘improvisers’ were found in all generations and career categories. Nevertheless they indicated that they felt quite insecure about it, and it was clear that there was even less know-how amongst the older musicians than the younger ones. A few examples are explored in the following sections.

Self-identity

The biographical research showed clearly that three interdependent incentives appear fundamental to the process of shaping musicians’ self-identity: singing and informal music-making throughout childhood; engagement in high quality performance, and improvisation (Smilde, 2009a: 243). In addition, the study showed that informal learning appears to be a very important mode of learning in music, in childhood as well as later in life. A sustained opportunity for informal learning and improvisation brings musicians into situations where they are able to establish trust, overcome feelings of vulnerability and embrace their interdependence. These contexts can then lead to stronger feelings of ownership of their learning, and thus to greater motivation and the development of more positive self-esteem. There also seem to be interesting relationships between being engaged in informal practice and improvisation and reducing performance anxiety (Smilde, 2009a: 248).

Sound

Improvisation deals with expressing one’s inner self, it is connected to one’s identity as a person and as a musician. It relates to expressivity, musical communication and conversation, to social learning and ownership. When the musicians interviewed talked about artistic processes, they often used metaphors as a kind of shared language. Metaphors for musicians’ self-identity frequently alluded to the notion of sound. Jonathan, the pianist quoted earlier on, said:

[Music] has to be about life. When you play a phrase it has got to relate at some level to something experienced or remembered in life. The act of playing is such a personal enriching spiritual experience … It is all about the living kaleidoscopic quality of sound. I think sound has got to relate to and mirror life, to all the emotions and feelings of life (Smilde, 2009b: 107).

OPEN IN VIEWER

Figure 1.

Identity, improvisation, sound and transformative learning.

The three incentives related to the concept of self-identity discussed above (singing and informal music making, high quality performance and improvisation) address musicians’ sense of belonging, which includes notions of what musicians refer to as ‘being seen’, and ‘my thing’ (see top box in Figure 1).

Furthermore, sound and improvisation are both connected to ‘feel’ (see left and right box in Figure 1). ‘Feel’ is a word used by the musicians for the tacit understanding of their musical language, but it also emerges in a second connotation, referring to relationships between musicians. Those two understandings are interconnected: in order to play together in a reflexive way, coming to flow whilst having tacit, implicit understanding amongst themselves, most musicians need to have an open and trusting relationship (Smilde, 2009a). Schön (1983) relates to this first connotation of ‘feel’ when he describes the notion of reflection-in-action through an example of improvising jazz musicians, where they improvise ‘through a feel for music’ (p. 56). Schön considers this a reflective conversation, where ‘conversation’ needs to be understood in a metaphorical sense (Schön, 1987: 31).

The second connotation, ‘feel’ in the sense of mutual trust amongst musicians, is addressed in the biographical interviews by French horn player John, when he talks about the tacit dimension (Polanyi, 1966) of trust between musicians in the orchestra:

… you learn to develop antennae that receive everything and transmit this to you so that you can respond. All these antennae in our orchestra are directed towards each other … We have a tremendous feeling of musical empathy … Everyone recognises each other’s colour and sound, everybody listens to each other’s sound … Listening to each other’s sound is the secret of everything. You catch someone’s sound and the sound catches you. (Smilde, 2009b: 340)

Improvisation and the identity of ‘the other’: Music and dementia

The concept of transformative learning, which appears in the lowest box of the Figure 1, is, as we saw earlier on, related to self-identity and this creates an important bridge to the next part of this essay, which addresses a transformational improvisation practice where the primary focus is on connecting personal and social identity through music. In addition to improvisation relating to one’s self-identity as a musician, improvisation can also serve as a means of connecting with the identity of ‘the other’. Improvisation offers a powerful way for musicians to engage with different audiences in the community, be it children in schools, elderly people, prisoners, etc. (Gregory, 2005; Higgins, 2012). The point of departure is the notion that artistic processes have transformative potential which can serve to make sense of the complex world we live in and can bring about a sense of community, inclusion and collective identity.

An impressive and transferable example of this lies in the project Music for Life, a practice that focuses on Music and Dementia, founded and developed by music educator Linda Rose and managed by Wigmore Hall in London in collaboration with the organisation Jewish Care. Between 2009 and 2012 ethnographic research into this project was conducted (Smilde et al., 2014).

Music for Life consists of series of interactive creative music workshops for people with dementia and their caregivers in care homes and day care centres in the UK. During a period of eight weeks three musicians, including one music workshop leader, work with a group of eight residents and five members of the care staff, using musical improvisation as a catalyst to bring about communication in a wide sense. The main objectives of the project are to strengthen the relationships between people with dementia and their caregivers.

The musicians use a wide range of verbal and non-verbal interactions in order to reach the individual residents and the residents and care staff as a group. Both the pleasure in music-making and the reflections of the care staff on the impact of the sessions are considered important. The insights and motivation that the care staff may gain from the process can result in positive long-term effects on their work with the residents (Rose and Schlingensiepen, 2001). These positive effects include improved interaction between care staff and residents, which may start to take place on a deeper and non-verbal level. The projects are therefore especially concerned with finding, or rather ‘re-finding’ the person behind the dementia (Kitwood, 1997: 10), in other words they have a clear focus on identity.

Oliver Sacks observes in his book Musicophilia, Tales of Music and the Brain:

The perception of music and the emotions it can stir is not solely dependent on memory, and music does not have to be familiar to exert its emotional power … I think that [people with dementia] can experience the entire range of feelings the rest of us can, and that dementia, at least at these times, is no bar to emotional depth. Once one has seen such responses, one knows that there is still a self to be called upon, even if music, and only music, can do the calling (Sacks, 2008: 385).

Connection

Linda Rose, founder of the project Music for Life, observed:

… if you get it right as a musician, if you match something in your music, about the person you are working with, whose identity is lost, who very often doesn’t know who they are, where they are, what’s going on … if that match is right, then somewhere between you and that other person, somewhere in that space where the music is happening, is that person’s identity. It’s in that music. And they see themselves, they feel themselves, they notice, they know that somewhere in there, is them. And that is the essence of that connection (Smilde et al., 2014: 292).

Sensitivity amongst the musicians, ‘feel’ or ‘knowing that the other knows’ is therefore key. Trust and extensive personal contact are conditional for the transfer of tacit knowledge and understanding in this practice. The musicians need to keep everyone in the group safe enough to cope with unpredictability, risk and trying something new. They need to be prepared to go out of their comfort zone, whilst at the same time inspiring confidence in the group (Linda Rose in Renshaw, 2010: 221). The musicians could sense a feeling of failure as soon as a resident did not respond to their music or suddenly became locked into utterances of dementia. The main learning process for the musicians was therefore to accept that at one moment a resident could be a conductor, and the next moment she could tumble back into the darkness of her mind. This required a lot of implicit understanding amongst the musicians. The musicians discussed this support of each other in terms of their ‘safety net’ (Smilde et al., 2014: 17, 203).

Matthew’s story: Looking through the eyes of another

Reflecting the identity of a person with dementia, whose language may have left her, is key in this practice. This makes an important connection to the theories of George Herbert Mead (1934/1967) and Paul Ricoeur (1992), discussed earlier on in this essay. Ricoeur argues that the meaning of what we do can come alive in a story and that we can come to understand this meaning through what he calls the plot of the story. An example of this can be found in a story of music workshop leader Matthew, as he described it in his reflective journal. Matthew mentioned ‘the Snark’, a fictional enemy, being his inner voice, which sometimes makes him feel extremely unconfident.

During one of the sessions Matthew is interacting through singing with Rebecca. Rebecca is a very difficult-to-reach resident, and often she can be aggressive. Matthew sings to her, and after some more or less confused responses, Rebecca gradually starts to respond in a concentrated and genuinely interested way by initiating new phrases of Matthew’s singing through playing the bass bar (Smilde et al., 2014: 54). Things start to flow at some point, and Rebecca’s responsiveness is quite new. However then Matthew’s inner voice, which he calls ‘the Snark’, starts nagging at him:

The Snark went into overdrive, ‘you aren’t a singer! It’s an easy trick to sing Jewish sounding music for Jewish old ladies – you aren’t even Jewish yourself, you have no right!’ But as the responses came from Rebecca, and I focused more and more on my singing, trying to make it as beautiful as I could, the Snark got quieter and quieter, silenced eventually (Smilde et al., 2014: 59).

The piece that evolved in dialogue with Rebecca was perceived by Matthew as a kind of ceremony, where, as Matthew relates:

Rebecca would ring the bell and then the music would happen again until it died down and it was back to her and she would ring the bell again and initiate the next wave. And it felt very, very serious. And that was what was in her face as well (Smilde et al., 2014: 59).

Empathy

Giddens (1991) refers to self-identity as the capacity to use the word ‘I’ in shifting contexts, arguing that, ‘A person’s identity is not to be found in behaviour (…) but in the capacity to keep a particular narrative going’ (p. 54). Keeping a particular narrative going, also a narrative without words, by musically reflecting the other through person-centred improvisation, connects the musicians’ musical identity to the context and thus makes this a social phenomenon. Such an artistic and social (learning) process takes place on an equal and mutual basis. It is, as the musicians at some point discuss amongst themselves, a cyclical action which has to do with others as much as with oneself (Smilde et al., 2014: 247).

The ability to make observations through the eyes of another, empathy, is thus very important. To put it in the words of Brian, the staff development practitioner who worked with the caregivers on dementia awareness, here, through improvisation, ‘the music is generated by the musicians from the residents’ (Smilde et al., 2014: 222). These deeply insightful words can apply to any musical engagement in any social context, as these words are about belonging.

Implications for future practice in conservatoire education

Music can be a significant agent of change, and improvisation is, as the Music and Dementia research has demonstrated, of critical importance in this respect. As we saw, improvisation is both fundamental to the process of shaping musicians’ sense of self-identity, and can serve in community contexts as the connection to the identity of ‘the other’, bringing about empowerment and a sense of wellbeing and inclusion.

It goes without saying that it is therefore of key importance for conservatoires to give improvisation a fundamental place in the curriculum, more so as there is a lot of evidence that musicians, once they have graduated, come to realise that they need improvisation skills in nearly every professional engagement (Lafourcade and Smilde, 2001; Smilde, 2009a).

Improvisation as a means for self-expression can lead to a sense of ownership of one’s musicianship and to empowerment, thus also helping to overcome performance anxiety caused by low self-esteem (Brodsky, 1995; Smilde, 2009a). In addition, improvisation as a tool for community engagement is an important provision for students’ future professional activities.

‘Identity’ in music can, as we also saw, be both a personal expression and an expression of the identity of ‘the other’ and a musician’s role in society is always about an interconnection of the two. Conservatoires need to reflect this, considering their role in contemporary society seriously and taking up responsibility to connect to society in ways that intertwine with their purpose in supporting development of artistic and personal expression. A conservatoire that fully values improvisation therefore cares about nurturing both personal and social dimensions of identity.

These perspectives on improvisation and identity also highlight ways in which individual expression through performance at the highest level and community engagement through music can go hand in hand. Improvisation connects these two practices, and therefore has a vital part to play in the core of the curriculum for emerging professional musicians in higher education.