Children’s musical perception and creativity as a compositional model

The intention of this study was to understand more fully the process of creating musical composition. As a means to to this I created a compositional model, "Maya's Words", a conscious experiment which utilised the techniques I discovered and codified from children's compositions. By utilising rhe model as a working tool and the information extracted from the children's works I was able to draw together my own theories and observations concerning the process of musical composition and how it works. Within this study I have also examined my own process of musical composition and drawn, in a limited way, upon my work on the methodology behind the compositional procedures of composer Elisabeth Lutyens.
The way in which the children used their own musical ideas in a flexible and original manner illustrated a mental state that seemed to be able to grasp thoughts from anywhere, without reference, for example, to tradition or style. This dexterity brought to my attention the notion that the children were using fragments of ideas/music/sound and integrating them into their own compositions.
In the compositional model for this study I chose to compose in a way that utilised information from this study in many manifestations but it also had to be an organic growth as a means to be real and for me to have a true input into it a sa composer. It also had to incorporate many of the study elements into it otherwise it would not be a conscious experiment. The two forces here, for me haave worked in tandem as the flexibility of approach used by the children has allowed me to work in a flexible way in this compositional model and yet the uncomplicated way in which the children evaluated their own progressions has had a profound influence on me too and provided me with a method of self-evaluation which does not create self-inflicted damage to my own feelings about my composition. I hope in the same way that this study will allow composers a freedon of perspective that will open for them a new understanding of musical composition.