Compositionality in music theory

The word compositionality, in the field of music theory and composition theory, is used to refer to the quality of that which is composed, that is, musical experiences considered as such. It is related to a similar question in the area of literature, wrapped up in the concept of literariness. However, the centrality of time in the musical experience means that the basic question "what is composition?" is continually modulated by its dynamic version "when is composition?". Compositionality thus takes as its object of interest the process of "becoming composition", and thus the creation of stipulated worlds of meaning from the continuous interweaving of theory and practice, principles and acts, criteria and choices.

Therefore, the effort to reflect on composition needs to face the challenge of starting from the creative process itself, freeing itself from the model of a master theory, that is, understanding the concept of theory from the perspective of a tension that it establishes with its "others" (practice, the field of experience, empirical evidence, the hermeneutic experience of the arts and narrative), as Martin Jay observes.

The notion of compositionality is articulated from this circuit of practices and theories and intertwines instances or vectors such as the invention of worlds, criticality (the ability to interpret the world from the standpoint of a work newly created), reciprocity (the construction of identities and sense of belonging), and the field of choices. According to Marcos Nogueira: "By synthesizing the vectors that underpin his Theory of Compositionality, Paulo Costa Lima teaches us that when we create a world, a world-work, through composition, which is an interpretation of the world, we establish a relationship between this world that is the work and the world in which it is found. The critical nature of the musical invention of the world, its criticality, raises the understanding that this invention, as a 'critical interpretation', cannot be taken as mere practice, but as an action based on the inseparability of practice and theory. He also observes that world and inventor interact through reciprocity, a condition that moderates the establishment of a field of choices, the game between ideas and compositional acts."

It is important to recognize that these instances also establish functions — as a matter of fact, cognitive functions — that are activated and activate the process of musical creation. These functions can be represented by keywords, so that, for instance, the perspective of the inseparability between theory and practice can be associated with the idea of synapses between discourses and compositional acts. This perspective presents compositionality as a kind of management tool for multiple discourses that take part in the creative (and analytical) process. Other functions would include: imagination (related to the invention of worlds), organicity (related to criticality), sense of belonging (related to reciprocity) and construction of criteria (related to the field of choices). And obviously, all this is quite relevant for the pedagogy of composition.

In relation to the instance of reciprocity, Rios Filho observes that: "The reciprocity between composer and work, besides being multiple in itself, necessarily also involves the participation of other bodies. How can we talk about reciprocity in composition without assuming the level of flows between composer and listener (poiesis/estesis)? Between composer and performer? Between the work and the listener - encoding and decoding? Composition and Compositionality seem to involve all of this at once, this entire diffuse zone of relationship between bodies that are themselves already shaped by a complex of "internal" relationships"

The notion of compositionality has also been proposed as a concept involved in the understanding of the cultural work accomplished by specific compositions. The analytical concept of a "ressignifying distance" has been developed in relation to works created by Brazilian composers Ernst Widmer and Lindenbergue Cardoso (among others), showing how the instances of world invention, criticality and reciprocity responded to cultural representations present in structural and narrative traits of these compositions.

Bertissolo emphasizes the idea that the notion of compositionality may function as a possible connection between compositional theory and cognitive studies  : "My current approach is an offshoot of compositionality and is related to my doctoral research. In this investigation, the thematic core was constructed around the complex articulation between music and movement, leading to the recognition of several possible interconnections between cognition and creative processes. For this purpose, we chose Capoeira Regional as the research universe, since in it there is no conceptual separation between music and movement".

Pitombeira (2019) also reflects on the notion of Compositionality. In his Compositionality as Creative Identity Building he compares three of its instances (inseparability, world creation and composition processes) with his theory of compositional systems. Based on the notion of world creation, the work establishes a universe (natural or artificial) through which the composer proposes systems.

Proposed in 2011 at the Conference of the II UFRJ International Musicology Symposium, the notion of compositionality has inspired a number of Brazilian researchers concerned with the construction of a representative field of inquiry in the area of music composition.

The process of musical creation is a unique experience. The effort to talk about it and reflect on it — that is, to understand how it produces meaning, and thus, to produce meaning about what it produces — is often a challenge. Its existence crosses and uncrosses propositional discourse in various ways, often leading to a kind of exercise in perplexity.