TRANSIENT:

CREATIVE AFFORDANCES OF RECONTEXTUALIZED MUSICAL ELEMENTS
IN TRANSCULTURAL COMPOSITION, IMPROVISATION AND PERFORMANCE

Doctoral Research Project
Sibelius Academy at University of the Arts Helsinki

This interdisciplinary practice-based research (Candy, 2006) aims to create methodologies for the composition, improvisation and performance of musical forms that source musical elements from diverse musical aesthetic value systems (Reijonen, 2025), conceptualized in this context as dynamic mutable information systems or bounded but permeable fields (Kramer, 2019, p. 4) which are governed by and reflect internal hierarchies of aesthetic values. By questioning representational aesthetic dichotomies while examining both the challenges and creative potential of negotiating and integrating aesthetically diverse perspectives, the research seeks to stimulate and innovate new discoveries of musical expression, seeking forms perhaps fully representational only of themselves.

My work draws from the fields of music composition and improvisation, music theory, musicology, psychology of perception, narrative theory and semiotics from within the frame of reference of a third culture individual or TCI (Moore & Barker, 2012; Useem & Downie, 1976), whose cultural hybridity (Bhabha, 2012; Croucher & Kramer, 2016) is a reflection of my formative life phases in northern Finland, Jordan, Tanzania, Oman, Lebanon and the United States.

Through a resultant evolving creative praxis that does not neatly fit into explicitly defined categories of aesthetic representation, I seek a musical corollary of this hybridity by examining an intersection of affordance theory (Gibson, 1979), cultural fusion theory (Kramer, 2019), theory of musical narrative (Almén, 2008; Micznik, 2001), theory of musical semiotics (Tarasti, 1994) and acoustemology (Feld, 2015). As composer, improviser and performer exploring the creation of musical form, I apply this theoretical-conceptual framework to the recontextualization of musical elements and phenomena related to aesthetic practices from my autobiographical environments: Levantine and khaliji Arabic art and folk music, Zanzibari taarab, American jazz, and European and American art and popular music.

My research output will consist of three artistic components presenting new music in hybrid album/video/concert format made available to the public; two peer-reviewed articles analyzing uncovered musical-aesthetic phenomena and developed compositional/improvisational methodologies; and a summary thesis aiming to re-examine notions of aesthetic representation and provide tools for composers, improvisers, and/or performers liminally positioned between aesthetic value systems.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. To what degree is it possible for musical elements sourced from multiple diverse musical aesthetic value systems to become so emulsified in new musical forms that they are all viscerally present, yet indistinguishable or inseparable from the whole?

2. How can a methodology of recontextualizing aesthetic elements and phenomena of Levantine and khaliji Arabic art and folk music, Zanzibari taarab, American jazz, and European and American art and popular music prompt the creation of new musical forms that transcend representational aesthetic dichotomies?

3. What more generally applicable insight can be extracted to contribute to research and education in the fields of music composition, improvisation and performance that isn’t conditional on the interaction of these specific traditions?

KEYWORDS
transculturality, music composition, music improvisation, music performance, affordance theory, musical narrative, musical semiotics, aesthetic representation, acoustemology

ARTISTIC OUTPUT

1. Three Seconds | Kolme Toista

Album released October 14th 2022;
Doctoral concert February 24th 2023 at Louhisali, Espoo, FIN

A 42-minute, 5-movement transcultural suite for trumpet / flugelhorn, trombone, violin, cello, fretted/fretless electric and classical guitar, Arabic oud, microtonal piano, acoustic and electric bass, percussion and drum set.

Role: researcher, composer, arranger, orchestrator, guitarist, oud player, producer
Format: album audio recording (CD/LP/digital); video documentation (YouTube); score (print/digital)
Dissemination: album (2022) licensed to Challenge Records International; video documentation (2022) available on YouTube; concert performances in Finland, USA, Germany, United Arab Emirates (2022-2023); score available through my website; case study analysis for peer-reviewed article and summary thesis

Portfolio | Audio | Video | Score

2. Sayr

Album sayr: salt | thirst released October 24th 2025;
Doctoral concert September 19th 2025 at Musiikkitalo, Helsinki, FIN

A 40-minute, improvised one-take recording for solo acoustic guitar based on pre-composed gestural musical cells.

Role: researcher, composer, improviser, guitarist, producer
Format: Album recording (CD/LP/digital), video documentation (YouTube), score (print/digital)
Dissemination: album recording, video documentation, concert tour, score, case study analysis for summary thesis

3. ENSEMBLE RECORDING

Projected 2026

Role: researcher, composer, arranger, orchestrator, producer
Format: Album recording (CD/LP/digital); video documentation (YouTube); score (print/digital)
Dissemination: album recording, video documentation, concert tour, score, case study analysis
for peer-reviewed article and summary thesis

WRITTEN OUTPUT

1. PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLE #1

   Weaving Connective Threads: Narrative Affordance of Aesthetically Diverse Musical Elements as an Integrative Device in Transcultural Composition

   Projected 2025.
   Case study of Three Seconds | Kolme Toista.
   To be sent for consideration of publication in international journals such as Music Theory Spectrum, Journal of Music Theory, Journal of Musicology and others.
   
   

2. Peer-reviewed Article #2

   Topic TBD.

   Projected 2026.
   Case study of sayr.
   To be sent for consideration of publication in international journals such as Music Theory Spectrum, Journal of Music Theory, Journal of Musicology and others.
   
   

3. Summary thesis

   Projected 2027.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

1. International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers (ISJAC) Symposium 2024

   Vanderbilt Blair School of Music, Nashville, TN, USA

   18th May 2024

   Three Seconds | Kolme Toista:
   III. The Weaver, Every So Often Shifting the Sands Beneath Her 

   "First Takes" presentation on my piece "Three Seconds | Kolme Toista: III. The Weaver, Every So Often Shifting the Sands Beneath Her", focusing on transcultural composition, musical narrative, polytemperament, temporal elasticity and polycyclic rhythmic counterpoint. Other presenters included Danilo Pérez, John Clayton, Anat Cohen, Oded Lev-Ari, John Beasley and Mike Holober.

   More info 
   
   

2. Doctors in Performance Festival Conference 2025

   Sibelius Academy at University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland

   4th September 2025

   Weaving Connective Threads: Narrative Affordance of Aesthetically Diverse Musical Elements as an Integrative Device in Transcultural Composition

PROJECT FUNDING

• Sibelius Academy at University of the Arts Helsinki

  Salaried Doctoral Researcher, MuTri Doctoral School | August 2023 – July 2026
  More info

  
  

• KONE FOUNDATION

  Expenses of 2nd and 3rd Artistic Components | January 2025 – July 2027
  Salaried Doctoral Researcher, MuTri Doctoral School | August 2026 – July 2027
  More info