Reflexive interaction and intertextuality in young children musical improvisation.

Theoretical Background The study of musical improvisation is gaining more relevance in the field of psychological and social-cultural investigations. Recent studies on teaching improvisation have evidenced like such practice, still rarely tackled in western formal music education, enhances self-motivation, collaborative playing and musical skills in children. In this paper the concept of "reflexive interaction" (interaction based on the mirroring effect) and the theory of "intertestuality" (e.g. quotation, collage, sampling) are used as theoretical and methodological tools in order to analyse the co-constructive processes of children musical improvisation. The Aim of the Study The aim is to describe and analyse children musical improvisation when they are playing with other subject(s) (human or machine), from a point of view of the co-constructive processes. A study lead on the interaction between the children and the Continuator, a particular interactive reflexive musical system able to imitate the style of the child playing a keyboard, allows us to analyze some cognitive processes of this kind of collaborative playing in young children (3-10 years). Furthermore, the aim is to verify the pedagogical efficacy of the reflexive interaction in the development of child musical improvisation ability. The Method Several protocols have been carried out with children of 3-10 years old playing with and without the Continuator, with and without a teacher. The experiments were realised in the basic school (nursery) and music school. The sessions were realised as follows: 1. child alone or children in pair 2. groups of 4/6 children in classroom setting 3. during the course of music improvisation. All the sessions were video recorded. A Synthesis of the Content The video-recorded data have been examined through two observative grids: 1) Analysing the form of child/children musical improvisations in order to underline the dynamic and narrative process of musical invention. 2) Analysing the child/children processes of “co-construction” of musical form. These processes are performed not by the child, nor by the machine (or teacher), but by the actual interaction between the child and the system (or teacher). Some video and music microanalyses will be shown and discussed. Conclusions and Implications for Music Education The data analysed so far show some interesting processes of co-construction of the musical sentences realised by the children. These data could suggest that the child is able to produce music with a personal style, and that the reflexive interaction is an efficient strategy to both develop and teach music improvisation. Furthermore, the data seem to suggest that the use of “borrowed” musical fragments, quotations, and collage, enhances musical creativity in young children, when it is based on the mechanism of repetition/variation (difference), as predicted by the theory of intertextuality.