Basic of Musical Composition and Applied Criticism: Benefits of Multidisciplinary Approaches in Music Criticism

Qualitative researches and applied Criticism have several benefits on practical areas of artistic creativity. In addition, qualitative researches and applied critics improve the theoretical basis of aesthetics and the philosophy of arts. The current research benefits from a multidisciplinary approach on its basic issues. On the one hand, the enquiries consider the principles of musical elements in composition in which several factors including richness of melody, repetition, phrasing and musical sentences, melodic contour, melodic compass, rhythmic structure, orchestration, and the lyrical structure discussed. On the other hand, some psychological issues of music perception and cognition form a case study in which two groups of subjects are examined against an Iranian piece of music. The study exhibits the theoretical issues on composition when applied in reality to listeners from different musical background. Iranian music, even though enjoys a long history, it lacks methodological studies particularly in recent times. The main concern of conservatories and music faculties has been training music performance and singing. In the case study provided in this article 10 musicians playing Iranian instruments and 10 musicians playing Western instruments. The result showed that the musical background and the familiarity of listeners play crucial rule in music perception in some musical elements while having little or no impact on perceiving some other elements. For instance, Iranian performers have a higher expectancy for melodic richness compare with the Western music performers. In spite of that the comprehending musical phrases were more or less similar in both performers groups. Structural analysis of music most often have some limitations, on top of those is framing the outcome by the world view and the perception of the analyser him or herself. In current study, this limitation resolved by analysing the piece from the point of view of several listeners from different musical background and different genders. In addition, using a multidisciplinary approach brings the issue closer to the way human looks at the world through various angles.