Table Of ContentMusic and Knowledge
APerformer’sPerspective
PerDahl
UniversityofStavanger,Norway
SENSEPUBLISHERS
ROTTERDAM/BOSTON/TAIPEI
MusicandKnowledge
AC.I.P.recordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress.
ISBN978-94-6300-885-3(paperback)
ISBN978-94-6300-886-0(hardback)
ISBN978-94-6300-887-7(e-book)
Publishedby:SensePublishers,
P.O.Box21858,
3001AWRotterdam,
TheNetherlands
https://www.sensepublishers.com/
Allchaptersinthisbookhaveundergonepeerreview.
Printedonacid-freepaper
Allrightsreserved©2017SensePublishers
Nopartofthisworkmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted
inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,microfilming,
recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the
exceptionofanymaterialsuppliedspecificallyforthepurposeofbeingenteredand
executedonacomputersystem,forexclusiveusebythepurchaserofthework.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface ix
List of Figures xv
Part I: Music and Knowledge
Chapter 1: A Musician’s Store of Knowledge 3
Introduction 3
Practice, Practice, Practice 3
Dreyfus’ Model of Skill Acquisition 4
What about the Genes? 10
Chapter 2: Music Performance as Creative Practice 13
The Musical Performance 13
The Creative Practice 16
Chapter 3: The Rise and Fall of Literacy in Classical Music 25
Introduction 25
The Rise of Literacy in Music 25
The Work of Art 27
The Classical Music 30
The Fall of Literacy 33
Chapter 4: Music Reading as Eye Movement 39
Background 39
The Music Reading Process 40
Design of Music Notation 45
Part II: Methodology
Chapter 5: Hypothetico-Deductive Method 51
Introduction 51
The Hypothetico-Deductive Method 54
The Scientific Method 59
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 6: Where is the Musical Work? 63
Introduction 63
The Communicative Chain 65
Chapter 7: Semiotics 69
Introduction 69
Ogden’s Triangle 70
Saussure 72
Peirce 73
Chomsky’s Generative Grammar 75
Lerdahl and Jackendoff 77
Chapter 8: Is Music a Language? 81
Introduction 81
Music as an International Language 82
The Language of the Emotions 83
Chapter 9: Hermeneutics 91
A Short Ride in the History of Hermeneutics 91
Explanation and Understanding 93
A Model of Communication 96
Chapter 10: What Happens to the Music When You Are Listening? 101
Introduction 101
The Listening Process 101
Chapter 11: Phenomenology 107
Introduction 107
Husserl 107
Phenomenological Method 109
The First-Person Perspective and Time-Consciousness 112
Chapter 12: Analysis and Interpretation: Two Sides of the Same Coin? 115
Introduction 115
Musicology and Analysis 116
Interpretation 118
The Coin 119
vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part III: Artistic Research
Chapter 13: A World beyond the Score 125
Two Quotations on Science 125
The Representational Theory 126
Embodied Meaning 131
Chapter 14: A World of Perspectives 135
Introduction 135
A Cognitive Approach 135
A Linguistic Approach 136
An Artistic Approach 139
Chapter 15: A World of Artistic Expression 143
Introduction 143
The Practitioner’s Knowledge 143
Artistic Expressions 145
Music as Communication 147
Name Index 153
vii
PREFACE
This book presents different perspectives on knowledge in performing music.
Having the musician in focus through all theoretical presentations and using a
broad understanding of the concept ‘knowledge’ the book presents several
methodologies from science and the humanities and links them to a performer’s
situation. A distinguished feature of this book relates to a musician’s reflection on
the constitution of knowledge in performative practice and artistic research.
Part I Music and Knowledge starts with the everyday routines and some
challenges in a classical musician’s working situation. At the same time, this part
will introduce some important concepts to be more developed in Parts II and III.
The many methodological approaches that are at stake in the performer’s practice
makes necessary a broad concept of knowledge. The overall goal of Part I is to
make a connection between practice and theory visible and attractive to the
performer.
Chapter 1 starts with the main subject to all students of music performance,
practice, practice, practice. The focus on the product: How does it sound? makes
this an example of a practice that involves the practitioner’s knowledge. The
aspiration to become an excellent performer makes theories on skill acquisition
interesting. And, do the genes stop your talent, or is it the genes that make you
talented? These questions surface quite often among young musicians.
The professional musician does need to be able to play the notated music but
knows that to make the score become music he/she must make deviations from the
score in a creative way. That creative process will be discussed in Chapter 2
focusing on the temporality of music as a dimension making the performer’s
situation and choices unique.
Classical music is incredibly connected to traditions of notation. In Chapter 3 an
alternative history of music is presented, showing the rise and fall of literacy in
classical music. The rise of literacy is connected to the first notation traditions in
the church where the goal was to secure a consistent liturgical practice in different
communities. The development of notation practice made possible a division
between composer and performer, and later many professions related to music in
the society. Common to all were the need for a performance (by yourself or by
musicians) to be able to listen to music. In classical music, the notation practice
was the grounding and an active identity-maker. The fall came with the invention
of the phonograph and the gramophone industry where music became available
without any competence in literacy of music.
As the literacy of classical music is so essential Chapter 4 will present some of
the research made on Music reading as eye movements and cognitive structure.
Developing a flow chart of the reading process will illustrate several elements in
the process from reading to action in a performance situation.
ix
PREFACE
Part II Methodology will be the core of the book both presenting and applying
different methodological traditions regarding a performer’s situation as a
grounding for artistic research. I will use the same basic model of investigation to
illustrate the different methodological perspectives. It consists of the following
elements: Observer/Observation - Sign/Theory and Consequence/Context. The
presented methods have different foci. We get a different kind of knowledge from
each methodology, and it is important to know what kind of questions the different
methods can answer. Starting with the Hypothetico-deductive method, the most
common method in science searching for knowledge about observable objects, I
continue with Semiotics, questioning the relation between observation/experience
and language (sign and symbol). Moving one more step to Hermeneutics, I
elaborate on the expression of the sign/symbol and its relation to the context and
the observer. Music experiences as a phenomenon make a presentation of some
basic phenomenological traits necessary to complete the observer’s position. To
each presentation, I have an extra chapter raising some recurring issues in music
theory discourse.
In Chapter 5, I take the traditional chart of investigation as a point of departure.
A problem/an issue may arise based on several observations. Then you can
induce/formulate a hypothesis. From that, you can deduce empirical consequences
to be tested and the results compared with the hypothesis. I will give several
examples from a performer’s daily challenges where an understanding of the
hypothetico-deductive method will be efficient. Many observable elements in a
performance practice can be treated isolated as objects where the restrictions in the
H-P method can illuminate the variety of choices.
The major issue in regarding the view of seeing music as an object is the subject
of Chapter 6: Where is the musical work? The simple answer “In the composer’s
mind” does not fit the discourses used among musicians. Besides, we have no
access to the composer’s mind so the object seeking question where … can be seen
as a category mistake (searching for something that is not a thing/object). As
pointed out in Chapter 3 the score has taken the position of the objective
representation of the musical work. Still, there is no sound. There is a need for a
performance, and therefore we introduce another human: the musician with his/her
creative mind. The musician can be the listener as well, but usually, our mind
works differently when listening compared to a performance situation. I will
elaborate Stephen Davies’ metaphor on thin and thick musical works and develop a
model showing how the musical work changes identity from composer via
performer to listener. In all three instances, there is a thickening and thinning of the
work.
Chapter 7 has a particular focus on our ability to develop signs and symbols.
The concepts we use in our discourse about music are dependent on ideological
premises. I will comment and exemplify how to identify the frame of possible
expressions in a notated score with reference to the understanding of the semiotics
beyond the notation.
The questions about music and language have been raised and answered in so
many ways that I will concentrate on a musician’s perspective in a performing
x
