InMI and its potential originality – musical creativity in composers’ minds

• Authors: Natalia E. Copeland
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The current article explores the potential innovativeness of Involuntary Musical Imagery and presents the current state of InMI researches. There is a lack of precise definition of the term, as well as related terms (such as earworm or musical imagery). InMI is often equated to earworms which does not do justice to its creative potential. Several authors suggest that InMI can be a source of new melodies useful for composers in their composition process. The article proposes that InMI can consist of new melodies and appear as a single event. Composers use their working memory and musical abilities to volitionaly loop the tune in their head, then transcribe it into external realm (notation, recording). Composers can later use it in their creative process. The use of InMI in composing is a matter of individual differences between composers.

Keywords

EN

Involuntary Musical Imagery; creativity; unconscious cognition; spontaneous creativity

• Publisher: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
• Journal: Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology
• Year: 2019
• Issue: 19
• Pages: 41-52

Dates

published

2019-12-31

Contributors

author

Natalia E. Copeland

• Faculty of Artes Liberales, University of Warsaw

• https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8779-5138

References

• Agnew, M. (1922). The auditory imagery of great composers. Psychological Monographs, 31, 279–287. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0093171
• Bahle, J. (1936). Der musikalische Schaffensprozess: Psychologie der schöpferischen Erlebnis-und Antriebsformen. Leipzig: Hirzel.
• Bailes, F. (2002). Musical Imagery: Hearing and Imagining Music (doctoral thesis, University of Sheffield, UK).
• Bailes, F. (2006). The use of experience-sampling methods to monitor musical imagery in everyday life. Musicae Scientiae, 10(2), 173–190. https://doi.org/10.1177/102986490601000202
• Bailes, F. (2007). The prevalence and nature of imagined music in the everyday lives of music students. Psychology of Music, 35(4), 555–570. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735607077834
• Bailes, F. (2009). Translating the musical image: Case studies of expert musicians. In A. Noble & A. Chan (Eds.). Sounds in translation: Intersections of Music, Technology and Society (pp. 41–59). Canberra: ANU E-Press.
• Bailes, F. (2015). Music in mind? An experience sampling study of what and when, towards an understanding of why. Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain, 25(1), 58–68. https://doi.org/10.1037/pmu0000078
• Bailes, F., & Bishop, L. (2012). Musical imagery in the creative process. In D. Collins (Ed.). The act of musical composition: Studies in the creative process (pp. 77–102). London: Routledge.
• Baird, B., Smallwood, J., Mrazek, M. D., Kam, J. W., Franklin, M. S., & Schooler, J. W. (2012). Inspired by distraction: Mind wandering facilitates creative incubation. Psychological Science, 23(10), 1117–1122. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612446024
• Beaman, C. P., Powell, K., & Rapley, E. (2015). Want to block earworms from conscious awareness? B (u) y gum! The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 68(6), 1049–1057. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2015.1034142
• Beaman, C. P., & Williams, T. I. (2010). Earworms (‘stuck song syndrome’): towards a natural history of intrusive thoughts. British Journal of Psychology, 101(4), 637–653. https://doi.org/10.1348/000712609X479636
• Beaman, C. P., & Williams, T. I. (2013). Individual differences in mental control predict involuntary musical imagery. Musicae Scientiae, 17(4), 398–409. https://doi.org/10.1177/1029864913492530
• Beaty, R. E., Burgin, C. J., Nusbaum, E. C., Kwapil, T. R., Hodges, D. A., & Silvia, P. J. (2013). Music to the inner ears: Exploring individual differences in musical imagery. Consciousness and Cognition, 22(4), 1163–1173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2013.07.006
• Benham, E. (1929). The creative activity. Introspective experiments in musical composition. British Journal of Psychology, 20(1), 59–65. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044–8295.1929.tb00540.x
• Bennett, S. (2002). Musical imagery repetition (MIR). (MA thesis, Cambridge University, UK).
• Brown, S. (2006). The perpetual music track: The phenomenon of constant musical imagery. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 13(6), 25–44.
• Cotter, K. N., Christensen, A. P., & Silvia, P. J. (2018). Understanding inner music: A dimensional approach to musical imagery. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, n.p. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000195
• Covington, K. (2005). The Mind’s Ear: I hear music and no one is performing. College Music Symposium, 45, 25–41.
• Cowell, H. (1926). The process of musical creation. The American Journal of Psychology, 37(2), 233–236. https://doi.org/10.2307/1413690
• Elua, I., Laws, K. R., & Kvavilashvili, L. (2012). From mind-pops to hallucinations? A study of involuntary semantic memories in schizophrenia. Psychiatry Research, 196(2–3), 165–170.
• Farrugia, N., Jakubowski, K., Cusack, R., & Stewart, L. (2015). Tunes stuck in your brain: The frequency and affective evaluation of involuntary musical imagery correlate with cortical structure. Consciousness and Cognition, 35, 66–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2015.04.020
• Floridou, G. A. (2015). Investigating the Relationship Between Involuntary Musical Imagery and Other Forms of Spontaneous Cognition (doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London).
• Floridou, G. A., & Müllensiefen, D. (2015). Environmental and mental conditions predicting the experience of involuntary musical imagery: An experience sampling method study. Consciousness and Cognition, 33, 472–486. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2015.02.012
• Floridou, G. A., Williamson, V. J., & Müllensiefen, D. (2012). Contracting earworms: The roles of personality and musicality. Proceedings of ICMPC-ESCOM 2012, 302–310. Thessaloniki, Greece.
• Floridou, G. A., Williamson, V. J., Stewart, L., & Müllensiefen, D. (2015). The Involuntary Musical Imagery Scale (IMIS). Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain, 25(1), 28–36. https://doi.org/10.1037/pmu0000067
• Floridou, G. A. Williamson, V. J., & Stewart, L. (2017). A novel indirect method for capturing Involuntary Musical Imagery under varying cognitive load. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70(11), 2189–2199. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2016.1227860
• Halpern, A. R., & Bartlett, J. C. (2011). The persistence of musical memories: A descriptive study of earworms. Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 28(4), 425–431. https://doi.org/10.1525/mp.2011.28.4.425
• Hemming, J. (2009). Zur Phänomenologie des ‘Ohrwurms’. In W. Auhagen, C. Bullerjahn, & H. Höge (Eds.). Musikpsychologie – Musikalisches Gedächtnis und musikalisches Lernen. Jahrbuch 20 (pp. 184–207). Göttingen: Hogrefe.
• Hemming, J., & Merrill, J. (2015). On the Distinction Between Involuntary Musical Imagery, Musical Hallucinosis, and Musical Hallucinations. Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain, 25(4), 435–442. https://doi.org/10.1037/pmu0000112
• Hubbard, T. L. (2010). Auditory Imagery: Empirical Findings. Psychological Bulletin, 136(2), 302–329. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018436
• Huovinen, E., & Tuuri, K. (2019). Pleasant musical imagery: Eliciting cherished music in the second person. Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 36(3), 314–330.
• Hyman, I. E., Burland, N. K., Duskin, H. M., Cook, M. C., Roy, C. M., Mcgrath, J. C., & Roundhill, R. F. (2013). Going Gaga: Investigating, Creating, and Manipulating the Song Stuck in My Head. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 27(2), 204–215.
• Hyman, I. E., Cutshaw, K. I., Hall, C. M., Snyders, M. E., Masters, S. A., Victoria, S. K., & Graham, J. M. (2015). Involuntary to Intrusive: Using Involuntary Musical Imagery to Explore Individual Differences and the Nature of Intrusive Thoughts. Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain, 25(1), 14–27.
• Intons-Peterson, M. J. (1992). Components of auditory imagery. In Auditory imagery (pp. 45–71). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
• Jakubowski, K., Finkel, S., Stewart, L., & Müllensiefen, D. (2017). Dissecting an Earworm : Melodic Features and Song Popularity Predict Involuntary Musical Imagery, 11(2), 122–135.
• Kellaris, J. J. (2001). Identifying properties of tunes that get stuck in your head: toward a theory of cognitive itch. Proceedings of the Society for Consumer Psychology Winter 2001 Conference (pp. 66–67). Scottsdale, AZ: American Psychological Society.
• Kellaris, J. J. (2003). Dissecting earworms: Further evidence on the song-stuck-in-your-head phenomenon. Proceedings of Society for Consumer Psychology (pp. 220–222). New Orleans, LA: American Psychological Society.
• Kellaris, J. J. (2008). Music and consumers. In C. P. Haugtvedt, P. Herr, & F. R. Kardes (Eds.). Handbook of consumer psychology (pp. 837–856). New York: Taylor & Francis.
• König, N., Fischer, N., Friedemann, M., Pfeiffer, T., Göritz, A. S., & Schredl, M. (2018). Music in dreams and music in waking: An online study. Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain, 28(2), 65–70.
• König, N., & Schredl, M. (2019). Music in dreams: A diary study. Psychology of Music, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735619854533
• Kvavilashvili, L., & Anthony, S. (2012). When do Christmas songs pop into your mind? Testing a long-term priming hypothesis. Poster Presented at the Annual Meeting of Psychonomic Society.
• Lancashire, R. (2017). An Experience-Sampling Study to Investigate the Role of Familiarity in Involuntary Musical Imagery Induction. In P. M. C. Harrison (Ed.). Proceedings of the 10th International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology (SysMus17), September 13–15. London, UK.
• Levitin, D. J. (2006). This is your brain on music: The science of a human obsession. New York: Penguin.
• Liikkanen, L. A. (2008). Music in Everymind : Commonality of Involuntary Musical Imagery. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC 10), 408–412. Sapporo, Japan.
• Liikkanen, L. A. (2009). How the mind is easily hooked on musical imagery. 10th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition, 271–275. Sapporo, Japan.
• Liikkanen, L. A. (2011). Musical activities predispose to involuntary musical imagery. Psychology of Music, 40(2), 236–256. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735611406578
• Liikkanen, L. A. (2012a). Involuntary Music Among Normal Population and Clinical Cases. Proceedings of ICMPC-ESCOM 2012, 12(4), 22–24. Thessaloniki, Greece.
• Liikkanen, L. A. (2012b). New Directions for Understanding Involuntary Musical Imagery. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Music Perception and the 8th Triennial Conference of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music. Thessaloniki, Greece.
• Liikkanen, L. A. (2018). Involuntary musical imagery – Everyday but ephemeral (doctoral thesis, University of Helsinki).
• Liikkanen, L. A., Jakubowski, K., & Toivanen, J. M. (2015). Catching earworms on Twitter: Using big data to study involuntary musical imagery. Music Perception, 33(2), 199–216. https://doi.org/10.1525/mp.2015.33.2.199
• Liikkanen, L. A., & Raaska, K. (2013). Treatment of anxiety from musical obsessions with a cognitive behaviour therapy tool., BMJ Case Reports.
• Lipson, T. (2006). The meanings and functions of tunes that come into one’s head. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 75(3), 859–878.
• McNally-Gagnon, A., Hébert, S., & Peretz, I. (2009). The obsessive song phenomenon: Induction, memory and emotions. Poster Presented at the Meeting of Society for Music Perception and Cognition. Indianapolis, Indiana.
• Moseley, P., Alderson-Day, B., Kumar, S., & Fernyhough, C. (2018). Musical hallucinations, musical imagery, and earworms : A new phenomenological survey. Consciousness and Cognition, 65, 83–94.
• https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2018.07.009
• Mountain, R. (2001). Composers and imagery: Myths and realities. In R. I. Godøy & H. Jørgensen (Eds.). Musical imagery (pp. 271–288). New York: Routledge.
• Müllensiefen, D., Fry, J., Jones, R., Jilka, S., Stewart, L., & Williamson, V. J. (2014). Individual Differences Predict Patterns in Spontaneous Involuntary Musical Imagery. Music Perception, 31(4), 323–338. https://doi.org/10.1177/1029864913492530
• Nass, M. L. (1975). On hearing and inspiration in the composition of music. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 44(3), 431–449.
• Nass, M. L. (1984). The development of creative imagination in composers. International Review of Psycho-Analysis, 11, 481–491.
• Olbrich, K. I., & Schredl, M. (2019). Music and dreams: A review. International Journal of Dream Research, 12(2), 67–71. https://doi.org/10.11588/ijodr.2019.2.64480
• Pestel, C. D. (2017). Musical Ear Syndrome: What Do We Know? (Honors thesis, University of Arkansas, US).
• Retra, J. (1999). An investigation into the musical imagery of contemporary composers. (MA thesis, University of Sheffield, UK).
• Sacks, O. (2007). Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. New York: Random House.
• Sadler-Smith, E. (2015). Wallas’ Four-Stage Model of the Creative Process : More Than Meets the Eye ? Wallas ’ Four-Stage Model of the Creative Process: More Than Meets the Eye? Creativity Research Journal, 27(4), 342–352. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2015.1087277
• Sloboda, J. A. (1985). The musical mind : the cognitive psychology of music. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Uga, V., Lemut, M. C., Zampi, C., Zilli, I., & Salzarulo, P. (2005). Music in dreams. Consciousness and Cognition, 15, 351–357. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2005.09.003
• Wallas, G. (1926). The art of thought. New York: Harcourt.
• Wammes, M., & Barušs, I. (2009). Characteristics of spontaneous musical imagery. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 16(1), 37–61.
• Warren, J. D., & Schott, G. D. (2006). Musical hallucinations in a musician. Journal of Neurology, 253(8), 1097–1099.
• Weir, G., Williamson, V. J., & Müllensiefen, D. (2015). Voluntary but not involuntary music mental activity is associated with more accurate musical imagery. Psychomusicology: Music, Mind & Brain, 25(1), 48–57. https://doi.org/http://doi.org/10.1037/pmu0000076
• Williams, T. I. (2015). The Classification of Involuntary Musical Imagery: The Case for Earworms. Psychomusicology: Music, Mind & Brain, 25(1), 5–13. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pmu0000082
• Williamson, V. J., & Jilka, S. R. (2014). Experiencing earworms: An interview study of involuntary musical imagery. Psychology of Music, 42(5), 653–670. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735613483848
• Williamson, V. J., Jilka, S. R., Fry, J., Finkel, S., Müllensiefen, D., & Stewart, L. (2011). How do ‘earworms’ start? Classifying the everyday circumstances of Involuntary Musical Imagery. Psychology of Music, 40(3), 259–284. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735611418553
• Williamson, V. J., & Müllensiefen, D. (2012). Earworms from Three Angles: Situational Antecedents, Personality Predisposition and the Quest for a Musical Formula. Proceedings of ICMPC-ESCOM 2012, (pp. 1124–1132). Thessaloniki, Greece.
• Williamson, V. J., Liikkanen, L. A., Jakubowski, K., & Stewart, L. (2014). Sticky Tunes: How Do People React to Involuntary Musical Imagery? PLoS ONE, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0086170
• Zatorre, R. J., & Halpern, A. R. (2005). Mental Concerts: Musical Imagery and Auditory Cortex. 47, 9–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2005.06.013
• Zatorre, R. J., Halpern, A. R., Perry, D. W., Meyer, E., & Evans, A. C. (1996). Hearing in the mind’s ear: a PET investigation of musical imagery and perception. Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 8(1), 29–46. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.1996.8.1.29

Identifiers

DOI

10.14746/ism.2019.19.3