The Performer Between Heritage and Novelty : Aspects of Spatiality in Performer’s Creativity

Abstract

In the communication processes of Western art music, there is an inherent problem of “chain of command” versus performer’s creativity. Bluntly put, the composer, dead or alive, is held to be an authority that provides the performer with ‘what’ and ‘how’ to perform, while the performer’s task is to interpret those instructions, accommodate them and the relevant performance practices with one another, while adding their own, personal, innovative, expressive, creative contribution that distinguishes the performance as their artistic work and praxis. The performer’s task in music exceeds the poiesis of sound, involving the production of the acoustic object for the listener’s semiosis, which in good praxis leads to what John Dewey called an experience. In addition to the study of musical semiosis, this chapter contributes to that discourse by analyzing the semiotic system in practices of performing (Western art) music, by approaching the concept of musical work as a legisign and a prototype in conceptual space, defined by performances as sinsigns and points in conceptual space, and by exploring the spatiality of performer’s “working space” between the instructions, constraining and scaffolding performance practices, contexts of performance, and expressive freedom of performer’s creativity.