SKU: GI.G-10054
Imagining the Good
Life through Music.
Composed by Clint
Randles. Music Education.
328 pages. GIA
Publications #10054.
Published by GIA
Publications
(GI.G-10054).
ISBN
9781622774548.
We
all need creativity in
our lives. It is key to
our happiness. Music,
according to author Clint
Randles, is one of the
best ways to feed our
longing for self-growth
through engagement in
creative processes. And
music brings us together
for the purpose of making
beauty with sound. It
provides us with a
pathway to the good life.
In To Create, Randles
answers the critical
question: What can I do
with my time that will
give me the best chance
at achieving daily
happiness? This amazing
book unpacks what it
means to engage in
creative processes. Since
story is the best way of
feeding our imagination,
the book unfolds by way
of life stories that
express the author’s
unique perspective of the
hero’s journey. Along
the way, Randles inspires
us to think about
creativity and music as a
pursuit that is not only
truly worthy, but
accessible. He addresses
rules for creative
performance, what we can
learn from exceptional
musicians and teachers,
the link between
spirituality and
creativity, understanding
our own stories in light
of the meta-story, and
the art of trust and
starting small. To Create
is a book that is unlike
anything written on the
topic—entertaining,
wise, inspiring, and
layered. It is for anyone
who is interested in
pursuing creativity
through music but can’t
quite figure out how or
where to start. States
Randles: “It is my hope
that you will be able to
imagine the good life
through music, that you
will be inspired To
Create!” Clint Randles,
PhD, is Associate
Professor of Music
Education at the
University of South
Florida, husband, father,
multi-instrumentalist,
and passionate lover of
music. Full of
resonating stories, To
Create is a profoundly
pedagogical book about
potential pathways into
life’s learnings
through and in music. To
Create seeks and embraces
the value embodied in the
multiple, individual, and
sociocultural authoring
of diverse creativities.
By analogising the good
life (‘eidaimonia’),
with lived-through
experiences by which our
desire (and drive) to
create, to grow, to
navigate, and to achieve
extraordinary things in
life is inextricably
linked, Clint Randles
stories his own journey
of being awakened ‘To
Create,’ by creating
and living ‘the good
life’ in and through
the symbiotic domains of
music and music
education. —Pamela
Burnard, Professor of
Arts, Creativities and
Educations
University of Cambridge,
UK To Create is the rare
achievement that
seamlessly blends how-to
curriculum with why-so
philosophy, making the
case that creative
activity is an essential
right that all children
deserve from an education
in music. Randles’
vivid illustrations prod
us to think differently
about teaching when
well-being—when the
good life—is both
destination and design.
—Randall Everett
Allsup, Professor of
Music Education
Teachers College Columbia
University Randles takes
readers on a real and
figurative road trip
during which he
demonstrates how to live
life to its fullest by
embracing creativity and
repeating a mantra of
possibility. He shows us
how the good life is
achievable, walking
readers through deeply
personal accounts of
creativity in everyday
situations over a
lifetime. This book binds
the individual and
cultural, imaginative and
practical, tangible and
intangible, light and
dark, yin and yang.
It’s all about the
power of three, weaving
through everything the
vital, intangible element
of spirituality, energy,
chi to achieve
eudaimonia. Through the
lens of his experiences
as a musician and
teacher, the author
celebrates relentlessness
and hard work, providing
a window into what it
means to engage in the
good life. Open that
window to hear life’s
call to adventure!
—Gareth Dylan Smith,
Assistant Professor of
Music Education
Boston University
Professor Randles’
stimulating book prompts
memory of the seminal
work of Joseph Schumpeter
who suggested the
importance of creative
deconstruction in a
democracy. Both authors
focus on attaining the
good life through a
fuller understanding of
the logic of the process
of change—change that
is driven by
knowledgeable and
innovative entrepreneurs.
The immediate application
of Randles’ suggested
dynamic creativity
processes applies to both
teacher education and
professional development,
although both he and
Schumpeter advance
general ideas in
creativity designed to
achieve the highest level
of human growth.
—Richard Colwell,
Professor Emeritus of
Music Education
University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign In
recent years,
Aristotle’s concept of
‘Eudaimonia’—meanin
g Happiness in the robust
sense of full human
flourishing (a life of
joy, fellowship,
self-growth,
meaningfulness, ethical
‘good work,’ and
more)—has entered and
transformed the
philosophy and practice
of music education. To
Create: Imagining the
Good Life through Music
is a highly original,
emotional, practical, and
exciting journey through
the natures and values of
creativity in/for music
education and life
itself. —David J.
Elliott, Professor of
Music and Music Education
New York
University.