Cognitive Processes in composition

Résumé En

This paper analyzes the cognitive processes involved in musical composition. The cognitive research in the field of psychology of music considered primarily mental processes and functions involved in listening, while less interest was dedicated to music composition. In the linguistic field exists a remarkable literature on the production of written text. It was demonstrated that the production of written text involves different processes that are substantially different from those utilized in oral conversation. Writing, rather that an unique ability, can be considered as an articulated whole of abilities that are developed with a good degree of independence. Making reference to the linguistic field, I report a cognitive model for the processes involved in music composition. I also discuss the importance of applying the results of cognitive research to other fields, such as education. Research on writing provides new insights that have important instructional implications. A fundamental issue in education was shifting the methods from analysis of written products to investigation of writing processes. Many inputs can arrive from cognitively oriented research, focusing on the interconnections among thinking, learning, and writing. An educational method based on mental processes instead on products, gave remarkable results in linguistic and could be adopted also in musical composition.