"Actually, you are always composing" - An open guided interview on the creative process with the composer Johannes Schöllhorn, the jazz musician Herbert Hellhund and the music producer Johann Weiß.

Abstract

This study investigates creative processes from the perspective of musical experts. The study is based on guided interviews with three creative musicians from the musical genres of jazz, avant-garde and pop. The theoretical perspectives consider different aspects of “generative musical creativity†(Lehmann, 2005). The central questions were derived from existing theories of creativity (Wallas, Bahle and Csikszentmihalyi) and focus on aspects of inspiration, composition/improvisation, medial conditions of music production and the relationship between the creative product and society. The aim of the study was the evaluation of these theories from the subjective perspective of creative experts. Theoretical perspectives were specified by two excerpts from documentaries on composers about their creative work (Arthur Honegger und Jacques Brel). The three interviewees gave comments on the excerpts based on their own experiences. The interview was transcribed in literary language. As a first result, the study revealed clear differences in creative processes, which could be attributed to the interviewees’ personal style of working and their musical genre. As a second result, we observed the principal difficulty of authentic communication about the process of composition in the medium film. In particular two problems became evident: the production of authenticity and reactivity in the filmic situation. We observed reservation among the interviewees concerning the validity of previous models of creativity. For example, the "creative triangle" by Csikszentmihalyi (1997) is mainly geared to acknowledged cultural achievements. Creative products of children would not be considered. Thus, models should be applied with caution and would be better understood in idealized terms. Furthermore, “inspiration†and “work†seem to be poles of a continuum and not separate types of creative behavior. In particular, the creative processes in popular music (e.g., songwriting) seem to be characterized by iterative working strategies and influenced by distinct conditions of digital music production.

Keywords: creative expertise; musical creativity; song writing

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