Comprovisation as a compositional method for a neuroscience-inspired contemporary music show for toddlers aged 0 to 2 by Anne Chabot-Bucchi
Presented by : Anne Chabot-Bucchi
Over the past decade, an increasing number of concerts have been designed for young children (Dyonissiou & Fytika, 2017; Ben Moshe & Gluchankof, 2021), offering them the opportunity to discover and explore music and engage in non-formal music learning (Creech et al., 2020). Infants, considered “music connoisseurs” from birth due to their excellent musical memory and early listening skills (Trehub & Degé, 2015), seem keenly interested in these musical performances (Barbosa et al., 2023; Kragness et al., 2023a; Kragness et al., 2023b). Recent studies of babies' engagement when attending a musical performance with their parents have shown that these little ones are able to remain engaged over a long period (Barbosa et al., 2023). Babies are more engaged when listening to songs than lullabies (Kragness et al., 2023) and when attending a live performance rather than a recording of the same performance (Kragness et al., 2023). While these exciting results indicate that babies may enjoy participating in musical performances where musicians perform tonal classical or children's music, we still need a clear understanding of how this engagement may vary depending on the musical style of the performance. To make progress in this area, I am currently conducting a research-creation project aimed at (1) creating an immersive musical experience in contemporary music, (2) documenting the child's engagement while participating in this musical experience, and (3) identifying factors that may influence the child's engagement while participating in this musical experience. The aim beyond this project is to make contemporary music accessible to as many people as possible. In this presentation, I propose to outline the process of creating this musical experience and the compositional method used, based on improvisation (phase 1), and to discuss how previous neuroscience literature has influenced this process.