In his book Beyond Boredom and Anxiety: Experiencing Flow in Work and Play, Milhaly Czikszentmihalyi explains that composers are among the most “autotelic” of people, that is, those able to create flow environments motivated through internal desires and processes. In play language, composers are among the most able to create and sustain play experiences, in this case, for artistic purposes. Likewise, in her dissertation entitled “Playing Music,” composer Juliet Kiri Palmer links her own intrinsic motivation directly to play, describing her creative processes using both play and music vocabulary.
However, what both of these texts have in common is a moving away from, or expanding, the definition of play elements and characteristics found in Huizinga’s Homo Ludens. How are composers able to create such incredibly engrossing play environments for solitary play? Is creating the rules for this “play” also a play activity? Does the existence of the finished product (the score) take away from the play experience, or does the score only serve as a template for future, prolonged play in the hands of those tasked with its realization?
Drawing from Csikszentmihalyi, Palmer, Huizinga, and other play scholar/musicians such as Nachmanovitch and Werner, this paper offers an expanded view of musical composition through the lens of play. It will explore relationships between my own evolving creative play processes and how this work has not only been guided by my understanding of play, but also how my understanding of how play “works” continues to evolve through this new creative activity.
About the presenterErin Heisel
Soprano Erin Heisel’s performances have been described as “brave, vivid” (The New York Times). She has performed in venues throughout NYC and abroad. She also performs and writes experimental physical theatre pieces. Her Ph.D. is from NYU with research in Johan Huizinga’s theory of play; she also has an MM from the University of Massachusetts, a BM from Butler University, with additional graduate studies in psychology and the arts at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University. She has taught at the University of Massachusetts, Bay Path College, NYU, and Adelphi University. She also works as a freelance voice teacher, performer, and is a certified teacher of yoga and meditation.