Musicking: Quick Reference

Core idea: meaning in music lies not only in the fixed works, but in the total act of musical participation (musicking) which includes performing, listening, rehearsing, composing, dancing, and even non-performance roles (ticket staff, roadies, cleaners).
Key premise: to music is to take part in any capacity in a musical performance; it is descriptive, not prescriptive, and does not judge value by itself.

The Concept of Musicking

The author argues against the view that musical meaning resides only in fixed works (Dalhaus’ view) and instead emphasizes the social, processual nature of music.
Music is an event: a social encounter among people and sounds, occurring in a physical and social setting, with meaning produced through relationships, not just through the score.
The term musicking is the present participle of the verb to music; it broadens the scope beyond traditional ideas of performance.

Four Corollaries About Meaning in Music

Corollary 1: Meaning is generated in the act of musicking (the performance as a whole) and not solely by the autonomous work. Performers, listeners, and others all contribute to meaning; great performances can spring from banal works and vice versa. Example: Billie Holiday with simple songs, or a Bach piece performed with deep feeling.
Corollary 2: Musical performance is not a one-way system of communication (composer → performer → listener). There is feedback among all participants; the listener is not passive and can influence the performance.
Corollary 3: The quality of the work does not cap the quality of the performance. Inferior works can yield excellent performances; great performers can elevate simple material (e.g., Patti’s radiance, Billie Holiday’s interpretive power).
Corollary 4: Each musical work is autonomous in some contexts, but many cultures have no fixed works. Music exists as an ongoing activity beyond the called “work” and can be performed in diverse ways; the concept of a fixed work is not universal.

The Social and Human Focus of Musicking

Music is fundamentally a social act; the meanings of musicking arise from interactions among all participants, not just from the composer or the score.
The author argues that music is as essential to humanity as speech and is born with the potential to participate by everyone; the concert life of the Western tradition represents only a portion of human musicking.
A theory of musicking aims to account for all human musicking, including cultures with no fixed works, and must be tested against real human experiences.

The Verb to Music and Its Implications

The verb to music (and its gerund musicking) is proposed as a useful analytic tool to study music as a social act rather than a collection of objects.
Two clarifications:
- The act of paying attention to a musical performance (even a recording or Muzak) is musicking.
- The term is descriptive, not valueladen; it does not prescribe what should be valued.
This approach encourages looking at the total event and the relationships formed during the performance rather than focusing solely on the musical work.

What Musicking Explains About Humans

The act of musicking establishes relationships: between people, between individuals and society, between humanity and the natural world, and perhaps the supernatural.
Understanding these relationships helps explain why people engage in music, how cultures promote certain musicking practices, and why some musics become globally dominant.
The author concedes that fully capturing these relationships in words is difficult, but argues that musicking itself provides a language for understanding.

A Place for Hearing: The Symphony Concert as an Example

The symphony concert is treated as a focal example for examining musicking in a Western, industrialized context.
The author acknowledges ambivalence toward the concert hall, despite personal love of the repertoire, and explains the goal of asking, "What’s really going on here?" without devaluing the event.
He emphasizes that the questions apply to any performance, including chamber music, opera, jazz, or non-Western musics, though he uses the symphony as a particularly revealing case.

The Modern Concert Hall: Context and Function

Post-WWII expansion: the number of professional symphony orchestras doubled globally as the Western classical tradition expanded into new regions.
The building boom: many cities constructed modern concert halls as centers for the performing arts; these halls are often iconic landmarks, designed to project cultural prestige and national modernity.
A modern concert hall is typically large, situated on prominent sites, and illuminated at night to symbolize culture within a commercial milieu.

Practical Implications for Study and Analysis

To understand music, study the total performance, not only the score or the event alone.
Consider how different contexts (audience, venue, social setting) alter meanings generated by musicking.
Recognize the political and social dimensions of musicking: access, power, economics, and cultural dominance influence what gets performed and who participates.
Use musicking as a framework to analyze any musical culture, including those with no fixed works, and to compare cross-cultural practices.

2000 people in a concert hall, 100 musicians on stage, 50000 voices in a large stadium illustrate the scale of musicking as a public act. A Walkman-wearing listener, a saxophonist’s improvised solo, a church hymn, or a rally singing all exemplify musicking in different modalities.