Music Compositional Creativity And Its Structural Model In College Music Students

In recent years,the social development in our country has put forward higher and more requirements for the creativity of talents and for the innovative teaching in schools.Creativity in music composition is the most common and fundamental part of musical creativity.Although many theories and practices about music education in China and abroad have involved the content about the creativity in music composition,no literature has clearly proposed and defined its concept and therefore,this situation hinders the further development for the research about “music compositional creativity”.Moreover,college music students are the main object of music compositional teaching as well as the main source of talents for professional music composition,so special attention should be noted for these individuals about their developmental characteristics of music compositional creativity.This dissertation generalized the concept of music compositional creativity from existing literature about musical creativity,then preliminarily divided its level hierarchies and established its evaluation system.Meantime,this dissertation also tried to use the analysis with multiple linear regression to explore the formation mechanism and influencing factors for music compositional creativity in college music students so as to better help them engage in music composition and provide references or suggestions for those who are interested in further development in music composition.The Introduction of this dissertation presented the origin,purpose and significance of this dissertation,also sorted out the existing literature results and remaining questions that related to music compositional creativity.Moreover,the research method and design were also presented to explain several important concepts that related to this dissertation.Chapter One discussed about the definition and evaluation of music compositional creativity.The concept of music compositional creativity is combined with music composition and musical creativity,while musical creativity is a subcategory of creativity.Through three concepts of creativity,musical creativity,music composition,and also learned from the viewpoints and research results from music aesthetics,cognitive neuroscience,music pedagogy and sociology,this chapter tried to give the definition about music compositional creativity,and further divided it into four level hierarchies:mini,ordinary,professional,and outstanding.Subsequently,this chapter discussed the methods about quantitative evaluation for music compositional creativity based on musical works and music compositional process.The evaluation based on musical works includes six dimensions: fluency,flexibility,systematicity,suitableness,originality,and value;the evaluation based on creativity process includes three stages: preparation,formation of musical thoughts,and formation of musical works.Chapter Two was about the establishment of the Three-Module Structure of music compositional creativity in college music students.Music compositional creativity is closely related to individual psychological traits,professional knowledge and skills of music as well as surrounding environment.Therefore,this structural model includes(1)Individual Module,(2)Domain Module,and(3)Environment Module.Subsequently,this dissertation:(1)divided the Individual Module into five dimensions as Intelligence,Personality,Motivation,Knowledge & Skills and Mental Health;(2)divided the Domain Module into two dimensions as Professional Knowledge & Skills and Music Preference Diversity;(3)divided the Environment Module into three dimensions as Family Environment,School Environment and Socioculture Tendency.Then,each dimension was given the rough description in Chinese college music students.The figure about the Three-Module Structure of music compositional creativity in college music students was presented at the end of this chapter(equilateral triangle around music compositional creativity)and also briefly discussed the relationship and mutual effects among the three modules.Chapter Three was about the establishment of multiple linear regression model of music compositional creativity in college music students.This section recruited college music students from five Chinese cities as the participants,then measured music compositional creativity and each factor in Three-Module Structure and also calculated their correlation.The results turns out to be all significant.Next,considering music compositional creativity as the dependent variable and those factors as the alternative independent variables,this section attempted to establish a multiple linear regression equation(the independent variables that entered into the equation included Intelligence,Personality,Motivation,Music Preference Diversity,and Sociocultural Tendency)and found that the discrepancies in these dimensions could explain the 69.4% difference on the score of dependent variable,while the influence of other alternative independent variables on music compositional creativity was relatively weak.Chapter Four was the discussion about the multiple linear regression equation of music compositional creativity in college music students.Based on the data collection and analysis results(Chapter Three),this section discussed the influence mechanism of each independent variable to music compositional creativity.It was considered that those students who has stronger abilities of long-term retrieval,higher level of openness to experience,stronger motivation,broader music preferences and stronger tendency to individualism tend to share common characteristics which are beneficial to the development of music compositional creativity.This chapter additionally analyzed the covariation effect between each two independent variables as well as their influence mechanism on music compositional creativity.Through the three paths of campus,individuals and families,Chapter Five put forward how to develop the ability of music compositional creativity in college music students.First,music teachers and institutions should focus on the creative sparks in students’ music works rather than directly evaluating their works as "good" or "bad".They should also pay more attention to their intrinsic motivation and cultivate their real and lasting interest in music composition.They can also work with professional musicians to train students with different ways.Second,if individuals were interested in music composition,he or she must assess the matching degree between the subjective and objective conditions with the current status of music composition.Meantime,individuals also need to keep motivation and self-efficacy and to look for professional and emotional supports toward their music compositional creativity in social network.Third,parents need to realize that music compositional creativity depends largely on learning and training so as to provide convenience for their children’s music composition learning.Parents should also adopt an emotional and warm parenting style to create a relaxed and free family atmosphere.Chapter Five is the conclusion of this dissertation which includes two parts: one is the review and summary of this dissertation,and the other is the limitation and future potential directions.Due to the limited sample size,some detailed statistical results in Chapter Three such as the correlation coefficients between music compositional creativity and related factors,or the regression coefficients of multiple linear regression equation,may need to be verified and adjusted.Similar research in future can collect more demographic variables,make more precise measurements for alternative independent variables or more comprehensive and in-depth discussions to the influence mechanism of each independent variable.It is also possible to break the time limit to make a diachronic study on the development law of music compositional creativity in college music students.