Published
28-10-2025
Type of Work
Conference Presentation
Abstract
This presentation explores creative practice as research through an innovative approach to musical improvisation that challenges traditional boundaries between music and literature. Working with experienced improvising musicians, this study investigates how poetic texts serve as catalysts for new creative processes and musical outcomes.
The methodology involved musicians responding improvisationally to recorded poetry narrations, followed by reflective discussion and re-improvisation, extending Hannan's concept of 'comprovisation' while maintaining complete musical agency. Significantly, the final creative works present only the improvised music, requiring audiences to read poems independently and construct their own text-music relationships.
This approach differs from established music-poetry collaborations by positioning poetry as creative constraint rather than performative material, creating "invisible collaboration" between literary and musical expression. Drawing on theories of group flow (Sawyer, 2014; Berliner, 1994) and interactional synchrony, the research examines how external textual stimuli influence collective improvisation dynamics while functioning as productive creative limitations.
The presentation demonstrates this creative practice methodology through live examples, playing recorded musical improvisations while displaying corresponding poetic texts. This format allows audiences to experience firsthand how meaning emerges through individual interpretation of interdisciplinary artistic relationships, positioning audience agency as another layer of creative constraint.
By removing spoken poetry from final works, this research pushes disciplinary boundaries between collaborative and independent artistic practice, offering new perspectives on how creative constraints function across art forms. The study contributes to understanding improvisation as a research methodology while challenging assumptions about how interdisciplinary creative works generate meaning through both artistic constraint and interpretive freedom.
Citation
Foran, S. (2025, October 28). Reimagining musical improvisation through poetic inspiration: A creative practice investigation [Conference presentation]. Critical Thinking, Critical Enquiry: Curiosity in Action, SAE + ACAP University College.