Innovative Compositional Practice: A Discussion of the Processes of Intercultural Collaboration Involving the Chinese Pipa.

This paper examines aspects of a practice-based music research project involving the Chinese pipa ... (four-string fretted lute). It explores the tensions inherent in intercultural collaborative innovation from the perspective of the developing field of performance practice research. We now realise that issues of intercultural understanding are embedded in the complex process of intellectual development. My first-hand experience provides a grounding to explain my perception of sociocultural understanding in this intercultural collaboration context. This article presents a case study of the creation of two new compositions: 'Hectic Peppermint' for pipa duet with electronics (2019) and 'Hectic Jacaranda' for pipa and guitar with electronics (2019). The project involved a four-way collaboration of two musical cultures within a complex intercultural space--myself (a Chinese Australian performing researcher), the Chinese pipa virtuoso Zhang Qiang (who represents the Chinese pipa solo tradition), the Russian Australian guitarist Vladimir Gorbach and the Australian composer Damien Ricketson (who works within the Western art music idiom). My research is based on publications of performance as a research method in 'translational' ethnomusicology, as well as an ethnographic and participatory research methodology conducted during rehearsals and performance. As a cultural intermediary, I consider the tensions and challenges between the musical heritage of the pipa and non-idiomatic approaches during the process of intercultural collaboration involving the pipa. These include the use of advanced digital processing, a new form of notation and the spatial separation of players during performance. Such complex facets of an intercultural collaboration are instructive, where a variety of cultures and aesthetics are involved in the act of musical creation both in a composing and performing sense. The intention is to learn how to better navigate such excursions into uncharted musical territory and create engaging encounters that can offer strategies for social change through dynamic cultural music making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]