THE MUSICOLOGIST / COMPOSER AS ACTIVIST: / THE INTERSECTIONS OF TRADITIONAL MUSIC, CREATIVE PRACTICE AND TECHNOLOGY

This reflective paper examines the process of producing new art music underpinned by musicological research in project work. It responds to a hybrid space where traditional notions of the separate researcher are suspended in favour of a model that sees the musicologist as an artistic collaborator in the continued development of music tradition. Arrangement, composition, music production and project management are therefore important skills for the researcher to develop in such project-based interactions. This emerging model of cross disciplinary musicological composition can help to facilitate artistic and musical outcomes as well as navigate the complex ethical and personal issues relating to custodianship and development of music traditions. Crucial to this is an increasing interaction with technology that such projects increasingly require. It is argued that traditional and hybrid music forms need the same access to physical resources, composition practice and productions skill sets as western art and popular music styles, and where possible that these skill sets should be developed and harnessed by the custodians of traditions.

A/Prof Kim Cunio, is an activist composer interested in old and new musics and the role of intercultural music in making sense of our larger world. A scholar, composer and performer, Kim shows that writing and making music are part of the same paradigm of deep artistic exploration.

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