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. Â 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
(‘eidaimoniaâ€
), 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  Â
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 Â
 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  Â
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  Â
University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign In
recent years,
Aristotle’s
concept of
‘Eudaimonia’
—meaning 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.
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