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What Makes an Audience? Investigating the Roles and Experiences of Listeners at a Chamber Music Festival
Abstract
The views of audience members on their listening experiences are rarely heard in the research literature, although much speculation occurs on their roles and perspectives. This article reports on an investigation of audience experiences at a chamber music festival, and examines the ways in which social and musical enjoyment interact to generate commitment and a sense of involvement in the event. Audience members’ anxieties for the future of classical music listening are discussed, and recommendations made for research and practice that could recognize more effectively the central role of the listener in contemporary musical life.
... Enjoyment has been found to be a motivation for attendance at, and a common response to, live musical performance, in part due to the presence of others (Baker, 2000;Dearn & Price, 2016). In their research on chamber music festival goers, Pitts (2005) discussed the positive effects of being able to see other audience members are responding to the music. One of their participants responded that "occasionally you see somebody with a slight smile . . . ...
... Other contextual factors are the event parameters, many of which have been found to have an influence on the social experience. These include the music being performed (Boer et al., 2011;Trehub et al., 2015), the staging (Dearn & Price, 2016), the arrangement of seating (Pitts et al., 2013), the level of audience interaction with each other and the performer(s) (Lee et al., 2019;Loxley, 1983;Pitts, 2005;Shin et al., 2019), the venue (Dobson, 2008), the style of presentation, and any other curatorial aspects of a live music event. Each of these parameters can influence the extent to which an individual pays attention to those around them and thus potentially be used to predict the strength of their social experience. ...
... The two concerts of the pilot study had many contrasting features; for example, the first concert was more controlled, and participants were invited to take part in a study whereas for Concert 2 the audience was a closer representation of a typical concert audience (Pitts, 2005). Based on the results of our analysis, we suggest that Parasocial Interaction (Horton & Wohl, 1956;Schramm & Hartmann, 2019) and In-Group theory (Alport, 1958) can be applied to social interactions within a Western art music setting (RQ1). ...
Social experience is often considered to be a key motivating factor for engaging with leisure activities and attendance at music concerts is no exception. Despite this, until recently, there has been limited interest in measuring the collective or social experience of live concerts in a quantitative way. Therefore, we created and validated a new measure of the social experience of a concert. In a pilot study, 103 participants were recruited across two concert settings . An extensive list of 65 items was used to measure the social experience of a concert. Based on the results, the measurement scale was reduced to 22 items.
In the main study, a further 113 participants were recruited at several concerts from a weekly series with a range of musical genres. Participants provided self-ratings of their social experience, emotional response (GEMIAC), enjoyment and demographic information in a paper survey. Based on the results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis we were able to reduce the number of items in the Social Experience of a Concert Scales (SECS) to 17 validated statements representing a five-factor model: Depth of Processing, Attention, Solidarity, Satisfaction, and Self-Definition. Using MANOVA, we tested the influence of these factors on the emotional response of participants to the music and found that they are not significant predictors; however, the social experience of a concert was found to be a significant predictor of enjoyment.
We have developed and validated the first quantitative measure of the social experience of a Western art music concert. Our results also suggest that the emotional response to music and the overall experience of a concert are separate and that only the latter can be influenced by the social experience of a concert.
... A space which this current study will work with to reflect the numerous theories for explaining the development of understanding and types of knowing available in the research field of music education. Some of the most interesting and relevant theories useful to this research project centre on developmental theories (Deliège & Sloboda, 1997;Stubley, 1992) investigating the relationship between skill, enjoyment and knowledge in supportive environments (Pitts, 2005b) and the relationship between music appreciation and other forms of knowing including the praxial (Elliott, 1995), the aesthetic (Capponi-Savolainen & Kiviärvi, 2007;Forney & Machlis, 2014;Gershon, 2010;Leinhardt, Crowley, & Knutson, 2002) and educational habituses (Prior, 2013;Sloboda, 1985). ...
... Certainly, these requirements present definite challenges to organisations wishing to create listening pedagogies to engage listeners and audiences on the basis of experience. Stephanie Pitts (2005aPitts ( , 2005b who has also researched audience's experiences of live chamber music at music festivals in the light of educational theory and offers some insight into how arts organisations approach and integrate ideas from this field of research. ...
... This intergenerational involvement between youth, adults and senior members of both the orchestra was certainly a highlight in the descriptions given by the audience research participants of this particular community. Pitts (2005aPitts ( , 2005b) reflects on the vitality that being part of a listening community brings to the listening experience. In a study on a similarly close-knit community at a regular chamber orchestra music festival, Pitts explains that though there may not be a familial connection, audience members through the community connection experienced a shift in the way they perceived and experienced their own listening from a solitary activity to a communal one. ...
Audience education is a growing area of practice in the arts and community services. While empirical research flourishes in relation to audience engagement and development through marketing and programming, when it comes to educational work there is a paucity of theoretical and empirical understanding. This is especially true of current understandings of audiences, their listening experiences and how they contribute to lifelong learning and arts engagement in the concert hall. Thus, the present study seeks to understand how education and learning are experienced by listeners in the orchestral concert hall and investigate the pedagogies of listening employed to facilitate learning and engagement as part of audience engagement, education and development.
By generating data through semi-structured interviews, focus groups and the observation of eighteen concerts, the lifeworlds and experiences of audience members and arts organisers were used to construct a phenomenology of listening experienced in three contrasting orchestral concert hall settings. The research includes data generated in professional and community orchestra contexts as well as perspectives from metropolitan and regional settings. The work undertaken here builds upon the theoretical frameworks offered by John Dewey (Experience as Education and Art as Experience), Christopher Small (Musicking: The meanings of performing and listening), Hans Georg Gadamer (Philosophical Hermeneutics) and Max van Manen (Phenomenology of Practice), and contributes to scholarship on education, pedagogy, experiential learning and orchestra audience development.
The findings theorise four essential qualities that are inherent to the practice of pedagogies of listening- the notion of relationality, the balance between various tensions, differentiation within both pedagogy and the act of listening itself, and the technologies utilised in pedagogies of listening. Each of the individual settings are also examined in detail to highlight the ways pedagogy is developed and how context and listener-audience-orchestra-musician relationships impact learning experiences through listening. In addition to these contributions to the scholarship of audience development and education, this thesis also offers a methodological innovation in the practice of phenomenological research using mindfulness and an exploration of the history of audience development. Both of these are published in peer reviewed journal articles and included as part of this thesis including published works.
... & Rifkin, 2003;Pitts, 2005). Yet, there is another level of communication that occurs among audience members themselves, who are influenced by numerous social and environmental variables related to the persons themselves and the characteristics of the performance space (Pitts & Burland, 2014). ...
... In current practice, applause usually consists of uninterrupted group clapping (sometimes accompanied by cheering, chanting, or whistling); this behavior has been the dominant form of audience response since the 19th century (Brandl-Risi, 2011). Applause can be interpreted as a measure of the audience's reception of musical performances (Brandl-Risi, 2011;Pitts, 2005) and other performance presentations such as political speeches (Bull & Wells, 2002;Heritage & Greatbatch, 1986). Lupyan and Rifkin (2003), in describing the omnipresence of applause in the human experience, explained that "the desire to express approval through a culturally-specified display has been in existence for millennia" (p. ...
... Because the magnitude of audience applause can serve as an indicator of public approval (Brandl-Risi, 2011;Pitts, 2005), the observed effects of audience applause could be related to the majority effects described in earlier studies. In these studies, individuals demonstrated that they could be swayed by the influence of others in perceptual judgments such as line-length matching tasks (Asch, 1956) and pitch/loudness comparison tasks (Radocy, 1975). ...
Applause, an overt expression of approval from audience to performer, is one of the most common forms of audience response to live musical performances. In this study, we examined the effects of applause magnitude (high, low, or no applause) and musical style (motet or spiritual) on listeners’ ratings of choral performances. A secondary area of interest was the degree to which these effects might differ between music majors and non-music majors. University singers (N = 117) listened to six excerpts recorded by a university choral ensemble and rated the performance quality of each excerpt. Across these recordings, they heard three identical recordings of a motet and three identical recordings of a spiritual with unique applause conditions attached. Listeners’ ratings were influenced by the magnitude of audience applause to a limited degree, but this effect interacted with musical style and presentation order. We observed no differences between the ratings of music and non-music majors, however. Results are interpreted in light of previous research on majority effects, and implications of these results regarding performance evaluation and concert programming are discussed.
... Jaialdiak eta ekitaldi kulturalak geroz eta garrantzitsuagoak dira gaur egungo gizartean, maila ekonomikoan, sozialean, gizabanakoan eta ingurumenean sortzen dituen eragin positiboak direla eta (Lee eta Crompton 2003;Goldblatt, 2005;Getz, 2005Getz, , 2010Pitts 2004Pitts , 2005Sherwood 2007;Karlsen eta Brandstrom 2008;Rivera et al. 2008;Rowley eta Williams 2008;San Salvador del Valle 2009. Jaialdiak hiritarren denbora-pasa bat baino gehiago bihurtu dira, potentzialki aisialdiko esperientzia paregabeak dira, bidaiatzeko eragile boteretsuak eta garapen komunitarioa errazteko eragileak (Robinson eta Noel, 1991;Prentice eta Anderson, 2003;Li eta Petrick, 2006;Rivera, Hara, eta Kock, 2008;Bonet, 2009 Ekitaldiak perspektiba teknokratiko batean zentratu dira orain dela gutxi arte, non industria eta kudeatzaileak zentroan zeuden eta audientziak eskaintzen zena kontsumitzen zuten soilik. ...
... Jaialdi eta ekitaldien potentziala ahal den neurrian garatzeko, beraz, oinarrizkoa da sektore honetako profesionalak audientziaren erabaki prozesuan parte hartzen dituzten faktore desberdinak: motibazioak (Neulinger 1974;Iso-Ahola 1980Argyle, 1996;Nicholson andPierce 2000, 2001;Monteagudo 2008), beharrak (Dower 1981;Monteagudo 2008;, itxaropenak, oztopoak etab., hobeto ulertzea (Pitts, 2005;Stebbins, 2007;Torralba, 2010;Calvo-Soraluze, 2011). Modu honetan, profesionalak esperientzien, emozioen eta esanahien eragileak bihurtu daitezke eta ez jaialdien produktore edo kudeatzaileak soilik (Calvo-Soraluze eta San Salvador del Valle, 2013). ...
... Of these, the history of the concert, its repertoires, halls, and listening forms (Schwab, 1971;Heister, 1983;Forsyth, 1985;Salmen, 1988;Johnson, 1995;Weber, 1997;Cressman, 2012;Thorau and Ziemer, 2019), as well as the demography, sociology and consumer behavior of audiences (Dollase, 1998;Reuband, 2007Reuband, , 2013Glogner-Pilz and Föhl, 2011;Gembris and Menze, 2020;Tröndle, 2020) have been examined most comprehensively. More recently, a number of qualitative studies has addressed also the motivations and experiences of various audiences (Pitts, 2005;Roose, 2008;Dobson, 2010;Gross, 2013;Brown and Knox, 2017;Toelle and Sloboda, 2019). There are studies which adopted a quantitative approach in measuring listeners' experiences in concerts, by collecting continuous or retrospective selfreport data or physiological recordings (McAdams et al., 2004;Thompson, 2006;Egermann et al., 2013;Stevens et al., 2014). ...
... If compared with other concert types, such as jazz and popular music concerts, classical concerts seem to leave the potential of creating a social experience of music largely unused, which is one factor behind the different experiences these concert types can afford (Pitts, 2005;Kulczynski et al., 2016). This has not only been criticized from a theoretical point of view (Small, 1998), but also been addressed by performers and concert curators who have started to experiment with forms that invite true interaction and even participation (Schröder, 2014;Toelle and Sloboda, 2019). ...
Performing and listening to music occurs in specific situations, requiring specific media. Empirical research on music listening and appreciation, however, tends to overlook the effects these situations and media may have on the listening experience. This article uses the sociological concept of the frame to develop a theory of an aesthetic experience with music as the result of encountering sound/music in the context of a specific situation. By presenting a transdisciplinary sub-field of empirical (concert) studies, we unfold this theory for one such frame: the classical concert. After sketching out the underlying theoretical framework, a selective literature review is conducted to look for evidence on the general plausibility of the single elements of this emerging theory and to identify desiderata. We refer to common criticisms of the standard classical concert, and how new concert formats try to overcome alleged shortcomings and detrimental effects. Finally, an empirical research program is proposed, in which frames and frame components are experimentally manipulated and compared to establish their respective affordances and effects on the musical experience. Such a research program will provide empirical evidence to tackle a question that is still open to debate, i.e., whether the diversified world of modern-day music listening formats also holds a place for the classical concert-and if so, for what kind of classical concert.
... Where interactions between amateur and professional or aspiring professional musicians have been investigated, these have tended to focus on the audience- performer relationship. These studies include works by Pitts (2005b), exploring the experiences and sense of community amongst regular audience members at a chamber music festival, Dobson (2008), investigating the correlation between venue and audience experience in larger venues, Burland and Pitts (2010), researching audiences at the Edinburgh Jazz Festival, Dobson and Pitts (2011), exploring the experience of first-time attenders at classical concerts, and Radbourne et al. (2013), whose in-depth volume considers the audience experience from a variety of perspectives. ...
... Pitts (2004) considers fundamental to music listening, rendering it 'a shared experience that reinforces identity and belonging' (158). The architecture of many venues delineates both social and musical factors of attendance by their fixed seating and restriction of social activity to spaces such as corridors and bars (Pitts, 2005b;Brown, 2013). Members of subscription schemes are sometimes enabled to book the same seat for every concert, ensuring that they see familiar faces and feel part of an audience 'family' ( Pitts et al., 2013). ...
Dartington International Summer School of Music (DISS) is an annual residential summer festival of predominantly classical musical learning and performance. Open since 1948 to amateurs, aspiring and established professionals, it represents an unusually diverse and multi-generational musical community. This study explores this Utopian vision of inclusive music-making through a qualitative ethnographic case study, utilizing unstructured interviews, observations, participant diaries and field notes. It addresses the following research foci: residents’ musical identities in relation to their musical background, expectations, and aspirations; playing roles at DISS; relationships with the act of making music and musical participation; and concepts of musical inclusion in the DISS context and beyond. Framed by conceptions of Utopia and the carnivalesque, and drawing on the sociology of work and leisure as well as theorisations of musical and dialogic identity, the study finds that DISS plays a significant role in the development and possible disruption of musical identity, allowing for creative risk-taking and the emergence of a ‘DISS identity’. Playing different musical roles – learner, teacher, performer, ensemble member, audience member - opens up the possibility of new, fluid, relationships with musical behaviours, as well as re-imagining and interrogating conceptions of musical talent. A ‘DISS pedagogy’ is discussed, which at its best draws on principles of dialogic teaching to include a diverse range of learners, whilst also presenting challenges in relation to teaching this mixed community. DISS is considered as a site for alternative performance practice in terms of audience-performer relationships, tutors as performers, and amateur-professional collaborations. Tensions between musical process and product, participation and ‘standards’ are revealed, as well as subtle hierarchies of socio-economic status and longevity of attendance. The potential of DISS as a site for musical inclusion is revealed to be richest in terms of inter-generational music-making possibilities.
... Below: Group of girls grooving on a corner at Notting Hill Carnival, London, 1975 Photography: ©UniversalImagesGroup Festivals are often cyclical and annual (Falassi 1987;Anderton 2006), and occur at particular periods within the annual calendar; for some, they therefore become a pivot around which the rest of the year is planned (Pitts 2005). ...
... They can be 'key tools' for developing new audiences for musicians and for genres more broadly (Jazz Development Trust 2001). They thus function as trusted 'curators' in which listeners are more willing to take risks in the music they experience (Pitts 2005) and in the venues they attend; indeed, some festivals even sell out before the acts have been announced (Frith 2007). Festivals are sites for learning and personal development for musicians, audiences, and crew (including volunteers), and may even contribute to social inclusion via political engagement and 'communitas' (Laing and Mair 2015). ...
AHRC-funded report on the impact of music festivals, including links to detailed annotated bibliography
... E. McPherson & Renwick, 2013). Such expressions and creativity coming out in performances are the desired outcomes, from which the audiences find their self-interest, positive experience, and enjoyment of music (Dobson, 2010a;Pitts, 2005). ...
Professional musicians have been continuously facing difficulties in career over time. One of the psychological threats for musicians is to lose their identity at work, which may lead to abandonment of their potential lifetime career. Previous studies have not emphasized the importance of certain work efforts to maintain work identity in the context of music career. This study conducted a literature review on the job crafting role to musicians’ work identity, and aimed to elaborate the existing concepts with the context of music profession. Using theoretical frameworks of job crafting and Job Demand-Resource theory, this study proposed theoretical perspectives to support the theories, by identifying five dimensions of job crafting (task, relational, cognitive, emotional, and physical) for professional musicians, as well as building a conceptual model that may help musicians to maintain work identity. This study also contributed theoretical insights and implications regarding the job crafting role towards identity construction for musicians, which could be considered during the current pandemic.
... Among the key references for these clusters, we alsofind very well-known texts and scholars, e.g. Peterson et al. (1996), Borgonovi (2004), Pitts (2005) or Bonneville- Roussy et al. (2013). ...
The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the possible enrichment of the traditional procedure of bibliographic literature review using Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods - automated information retrieval. Our task was to conduct a systematic review of academic literature focused on the classical music audience research in the context of arts management and arts marketing. As a core base, we used bibliographic metadata, extracted from the Scopus database. The limits of the most commonly used methods of bibliographic analysis of the literature, which are co-citation analysis and bibliographic coupling, are well known. Therefore, we also used one of the NLP methods for metadata analysis, which allows automated processing of large numbers of texts to overcome these known problems. Thanks to this, we managed to obtain a higher granularity of the researched topics, to reveal emerging topics and to identify gaps in research. To the best of our knowledge, such an approach to the systematic literature review in the field of social sciences has not yet been applied.
... This is a place where to share and discuss ideas. It is here that a connection with the actor and the creative teams is created (Pitts 2005). ...
When the pandemic began to affect the performance world, both festival artists and producers started to adopt creative approaches to moving their work online. In the study presented here, we focus on the 2020 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which offered a unique opportunity to understand how performers coped with the enforced switch to digital. Underpinning the Fringe Festival ethos is the attitude of experimentation, and we propose that there is much to learn from the response of performers and producers to this unprecedented situation. As one interviewee put it; ‘we got given a hefty dose of lemons, and the point of all of this was, just go and make lemonade and see what happens’ (Yvette). In this article, we focus on the challenge of managing the audience experience in the digital space, particularly before and after a performance. We note that familiar rituals play a key role for physical audiences and we position this idea within the Trajectories Framework, identifying coherent journeys through a user experience (Benford and Giannachi 2011. Performing Mixed Reality. The MIT Press. ISBN:978-0-262-01576-9), in order to frame it with digital audiences in mind. We provide recommendations regarding aspects for performers and producers to address as online and digital becomes an increasingly accepted part of the festival landscape.
... Some argue that the appeal of a live music concert comes from the experience of aesthetic pleasure (Small, 1998), while others interpret concerts in a social context (Pitts 2005). Listening to music allows for escapism and detachment from reality even if it is still part of the world around it (Bull, 2005). ...
In this study, we address the impact of COVID-19 on classical music concerts. New forms of cultural consumption and their convenience have raised the question as to whether concert halls will still be needed in the future, and whether the audience will take on the extra time and effort to be present in person at a musical artistic event. In an analysis of international surveys, we formed an accurate picture of music listening habits in the period before and during the pandemic. We also administered a survey, completed by 134 music teachers. Although the findings cannot be generalised to society as a whole, the respondents in the sample are well acquainted with the artistic setting and possess sufficient prior experience, so their opinion is relevant to the topic. Despite the convenience of the online space and the rich selection of art available, the interviewed music teachers will still prefer live music events, which offer them a more profound experience.
... The findings of this study support the aforementioned proposition. In this connection, a cultural festival not only offers opportunities to the visitors to attend culturally robust music and dance events but it also offers them with a chance to socially connect and engage with fellow visitors and also festival performers (Pitts, 2005), leading to social integration and community cohesion (Packer & Ballantyne, 2011). Moreover, when cultural festival attendees continue to share their common experiences with each other beyond the duration of the festival itself, they attenuate the possibility of social isolation and, in the process, augment social acceptance and social actualization. ...
This research endeavor examined the relationship between cultural festival experience and subjective well-being among festival attendees. In this connection, this study captured the perceptions of 192 festival attendees’ attending the cultural festival of ‘Virasat’ in India on the four sub-dimensions of festival experiences (i.e., music experience, festival atmosphere, social experience, separation experience) and subjective well-being. Accordingly, this study adopted structural equation modeling (SEM) and hierarchical regression analysis to examine the relationship between the study constructs. Results that emerge from this study point towards the presence of a significant positive relationship between cultural festival experience and subjective well-being. Further, of the four dimensions of festival experience, music experience and separation experience, in that order, were found to be the most potent predictors of subjective well-being. Social experience and festival atmosphere only minimally augmented predictability of subjective well-being over and above music experience and separation experience. Accordingly, the findings of this study are expected to aid cultural festival organizers to design events that elicit exhilarating festival experiences which, in its turn, is expected to augment subjective well-being among event attendees. Further, drawing extensively from subjective well-being research in India that suggests that factors like socio-demographics, personal characteristics, economic conditions, and purchasing power parity contribute only moderately, if not significantly, to the levels of subjective well-being among the residents in India, the findings of this study situates cultural festival experience as a possible trigger that augments subjective well-being among Indians in a collectivist cultural context.
... Roose's (2008) study of audiences for symphonic and chamber music in Belgium found a negative relationship between frequency of attendance and desire for familiarity; infrequent attenders showed a much stronger preference for familiar music than those who attended regularly. Pitts" (2005;Pitts & Spencer, 2008) studies with audiences for chamber music in the UK using questionnaires, interviews and, in the case of the 2005 study, diaries, found that the trust of concertgoers in the ensemble's programming made them at times "cautiously open-minded" (2005, p. 263), while at other times they reported feeling guilty when they avoided newer or unfamiliar works (2008, p. 10). Dobson (2013) investigated the effect of musical familiarity by taking a group of people to their first concerts of classical music and asking them to comment, in surveys and interviews, on their experience. ...
Since the establishment of a classical music canon in the 19th century, classical music culture has historically been focused on a stable set of masterpieces by genius composers predominantly from the classical and romantic periods. A small number of composers continue to dominate programming to this day. Many classical music organisations are keen to programme music beyond this narrow repertoire and to showcase new or unfamiliar works. The need to sell tickets, however, is often an obstacle, with organisations far more confident in the ability of big hits to attract large crowds. This article explores the experiences and opinions of classical music concertgoers in relation to familiar and unfamiliar music, providing a number of reasons as to why audiences may choose to hear well-known pieces rather than new works. This paper reports on one strand of a qualitative study with 42 individuals who booked tickets for one of two concert series consisting of core and populist repertoire, respectively. Semi-structured interviews were carried out to explore the reasons for their choices and their experiences of attending live concerts. These interviews showed that most participants did indeed have a clear preference for hearing music that was familiar to them, and only frequent attenders relished the challenge of unknown music. Participants felt that listening to familiar music was usually a more enjoyable experience than hearing something new. They rarely spoke of becoming bored with over-familiar music, perhaps because the live concert experience brings a sense of freshness to even the most familiar work.
... Here optimized use of virtuosity with artistry makes the music lively or bright. The uniqueness of an Indian classical music concert, as Pitts writes, is a live interaction between the performer and the audiences (Pitts, 2005). In such concerts, the listeners are not just 'reverent applauder' as Juan Prieto-Rodriguez and Victor referred Baumol and Bowen (1966), Throsby and Withers (1977), Abbe-Decarroux and Grin (1992) pointed out in the context of classical music. ...
The research study is executed to identify the essential musical components that work behind the success
of Hindustani Raga Music (HRM) renderings. It examines different performance components of HRM
rendered in public concert situations. The traditionally prescribed parts of HRM performances and the
music generated effects like raga mood, serenity, liveliness, surprise, and others in performances are also
analyzed in the study. The objective of this study is to identify the musical components that are responsible
for generating considerable impacts on the listeners. This investigation is based on the rating of different
musical components by the listeners. Highly popular HRM festivals were selected for obtaining data. The
findings successfully indicate that slow improvisations and traditionally accepted raga moods are the highimpact components for good acceptance by the listeners; also, the applications of high-speed components
make the renderings outstanding.
Keywords: Hindustani, raga music, mood, speed, serenity, liveliness, uniqueness, surprise
... The typical classical concert venue and norms of concert attendance exacerbate the problem, as the often plainly-decorated concert hall is designed to discourage socialization and direct concertgoers' complete attention to the performance (Kolb, 1998), with participants sitting "in darkened silence watching mostly anonymous performers while keeping their attention focused solely on music" (Kolb, 2000). Younger consumers wish to use their free time for activities incorporating a stronger social element than typically found in a classical concert (Pitts, 2005), attending primarily to relax and fulfill basic social needs (Baker, 2000). ...
... Ultimately, the drive to create innovative listening itineraries to stimulate and entice audiences means turning attention away from who is performing towards who is listening (Pitts 2005 andPitts & Spencer 2008). Several studies based on audience feedback have demonstrated that similarly innovative programming resulted in a more intense and engaging experience: concerts that feature new works and unpredictable program (Sloboda 2013), that provide audiences with more information about the music they hear using different technologies (Dobson 2010), that incorporate visual components, video projections, and lighting (Brown & Ratzkin 2013), that introduce something new or musically challenging for frequent attenders (Roose 2008), that develop audiences through the production of non-traditional and enhanced experiences, and that reach new and younger audiences by integrating programmatic themes and alternative forms (Whitaker & Philliber 2003). ...
This article aims to provide the first large-scale description of current trends in classical music programming. The purpose is to analyze an issue commonly associated with the critical state of concert venues today, which is to say, the predominantly conservative aesthetic of performed repertoires. This paper attempts to go further than previous studies by looking at a larger group of repertoires and institutions, examining data from some 4,700 concerts performed between 2010 and 2015, randomly gathered by the database www.bachtrack.com. No other source in this field enjoys its sheer size and wide variety. The first section demonstrates that an extremely small handful of composers dominate the musical landscape, and that patterns of association between programmed composers within individual concerts are highly predictable. Against this problematic backdrop, the second section proposes possible remedies to balance this disproportionate concentration of specific styles, composers, and associations by focusing as a case study on the innovative music program at the Juan March Foundation in Madrid. The overall results are both original and valuable, as they reveal otherwise undetected trends in music programming, while providing practical strategies to re-engage audiences and encourage different cultural policies at concert halls.
... However, very few studies have attempted to investigate the impact on traditional concert audiences of listening to live performances of classical music that vary in their expressive intent. Some studies have measured the subjective responses of audience members via questionnaires and/or interviews (Pitts, 2005;Thompson, 2006Thompson, , 2007Pitts and Spencer, 2007;Dobson, 2008), but none of them directly addresses responses to the improvised or spontaneous elements of the performance. Also, the substantial neuroscience literature on the relationship between music and language (see Hutka et al., 2013 and references therein) focuses on sensory and semantic processing of individuals, and does not address the interaction between performers and listeners. ...
The recent re-introduction of improvisation as a professional practice within classical music, however cautious and still rare, allows direct and detailed contemporary comparison between improvised and “standard” approaches to performances of the same composition, comparisons which hitherto could only be inferred from impressionistic historical accounts. This study takes an interdisciplinary multi-method approach to discovering the contrasting nature and effects of prepared and improvised approaches during live chamber-music concert performances of a movement from Franz Schubert's “Shepherd on the Rock,” given by a professional trio consisting of voice, flute, and piano, in the presence of an invited audience of 22 adults with varying levels of musical experience and training. The improvised performances were found to differ systematically from prepared performances in their timing, dynamic, and timbral features as well as in the degree of risk-taking and “mind reading” between performers, which included moments of spontaneously exchanging extemporized notes. Post-performance critical reflection by the performers characterized distinct mental states underlying the two modes of performance. The amount of overall body movements was reduced in the improvised performances, which showed less unco-ordinated movements between performers when compared to the prepared performance. Audience members, who were told only that the two performances would be different, but not how, rated the improvised version as more emotionally compelling and musically convincing than the prepared version. The size of this effect was not affected by whether or not the audience could see the performers, or by levels of musical training. EEG measurements from 19 scalp locations showed higher levels of Lempel-Ziv complexity (associated with awareness and alertness) in the improvised version in both performers and audience. Results are discussed in terms of their potential support for an “improvisatory state of mind” which may have aspects of flow (as characterized by Csikszentmihalyi, 1997) and primary states (as characterized by the Entropic Brain Hypothesis of Carhart-Harris et al., 2014). In a group setting, such as a live concert, our evidence suggests that this state of mind is communicable between performers and audience thus contributing to a heightened quality of shared experience.
... One of the key aspects that distinguishes live performances from pre-recorded music is the presence of other audience members. Research has demonstrated that the listener's experience at live performances is influenced by the presence of other people (Pitts, 2005). However, research in live performance settings has largely focused on the influence of musical structure (McAdams et al., 2004), personality (Balteş & Miu, 2014), visual aspects in opera performance (Balteş et al., 2011), and violations of musical expectations in considering the affective response of audience members. ...
Research into audience engagement in the arts is a growing area of interest because of the need to build audiences and to provide convincing evidence of the value of arts programs to funding bodies. In addition, the way in which music works so as to touch the listener is of ongoing interest to music psychologists and is increasingly being considered in the context of live listening situations. This paper considers the phenomenon of emotional contagion, or the transference of emotion between audience members, and how this contributes to the audience experience. Audience members (N = 105) were surveyed at three concerts by a ‘pro-am’ orchestra – an orchestra made up of both professionals and amateurs – about their response to the concerts and factors that influenced that response. It was found that emotional contagion can enhance the emotional response of audience members at concerts, and that this is mediated by the sense of social bonding participants have with other people present. Social bonding is also associated with attendance at enhancement events such as pre-concert talks.
... 26-27). Niet alleen de zaal, ook de 'concerthall conventions' houden het publiek op afstand van de uitvoerenden (Pitts, 2005, p. 257). ...
Over the last couple of hundreds of years, the relationship between musicians and their audiences have changed drastically. Today, passive listening and mental understanding is the norm. This research explores the history of what else was possible and what this could mean for the future of concerts of classical music. In an experimental setting, members of the audience have been participating in activities to heighten their involvement in the concert. Insights in 'normal' education have been used in a concert hall-setting.
... However, work on the artistic experience has been developed not only in the USA but also in Europe (Amigo and Cuenca-Amigo, 2012;Jobst and Boerner, 2011;New Economics Foundation, 2010;Pitts, 2005;Reason, 2010;Rössel, 2011), Australia (Australia Council for the Arts, 2010; Bailey and Richardson, 2010;, and collaboratively by other countries (Radbourne et al., 2013). ...
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the concept of audience development, analysing
differences between a number of countries and identifying common elements that underlie the concept
regardless of the context.
Design/methodology/approach – In addition to the literature review, fieldwork has been conducted in the
UK, Denmark, Italy, and Spain applying qualitative methodology. The study has been structured in two
phases. The first phase comprised 26 in-depth interviews with European experts in audience development
while the second phase consisted of six focus groups with European experts.
Findings – The paper reveals differences between countries, ranging from the definition of the term audience
development to the approach undertaken. Despite this, a number of aspects, independent of the context and
considered key to a successful audience development, are identified. These aspects are related to the
consideration of the development of audiences as a transversal long-term strategy supported by the top
management of the organisation.
Originality/value – The value provided is twofold. First, thanks to the empirical data used, the paper
analyses the socio-cultural aspects that affect the emergence of country-specific approaches to audience
development and it individuates general features and ideas that contribute to the better understanding of the
concept itself. Second, it is one of the few academic works carried out in Spain on this issue.
... Email: l.nooshin@city.ac.uk ISSN 1741ISSN -1912 Melvin and Cai 2004;Pitts 2005;Pitts and Spencer 2008;Sailer 2004;Shelemay 2001;Usner 2010;Wint 2012;Yoshihari 2007), and this work is by no means the sole preserve of ethnomusicologists, but includes writings by music educators, performers, musicologists, anthropologists and others, arguably attracting a more diverse range of scholars than many other areas of ethnomusicological study. The current issue seeks to contribute to this field of research and is, to my knowledge, the first collection of essays on the topic. ...
... Those researchers capturing a range of everyday experiences using methods such as experience sampling had uncovered some general features of music listening settings, such as the prevalence of particular emotions in social settings found by Juslin et al. (2008), and some rather coincidental results, such as the finding that music listening was more likely to take place in the evening and at weekends (North et al., 2004). Adopting a different approach, others have explored in detail specific contexts which provide rich musical and social experiences, such as music festivals, in order to consider the importance of music in listeners' lives (e.g., Karlsen, 2007;Pitts, 2005aPitts, , 2005b. Exploring a rich context in detail has considerable value, opening up the possibility of investigating the effects of one musical event on many listeners. ...
Research has begun to explore the nature of strong experiences of music listening, identifying a number of individual components from physiological through to psychological (Gabrielsson & Lindström Wik, 2003), but this has not yet been considered in relation to mainstream theories of happiness. Drawing on positive psychology, Seligman's (2002) framework for achieving balanced wellbeing includes the components of pleasure, engagement, and meaning. In the current study, 46 university students (median age 21) gave free reports of their strongest, most intense experiences of music listening. Accounts were analysed thematically using an idiographic approach, exploring the relevance of Seligman's framework. Most strong experiences were positive, and occurred at live events with others. A wide range of mainly familiar music was associated with reported strong experiences, from classical through jazz and folk to old and new pop music, and experiences lasted for varying time periods from seconds to hours. Unexpected musical or non-musical events were sometimes associated with strong experiences. None of the accounts could be characterized by a single route to happiness: in addition to hedonism, engagement and meaning (particularly in terms of identity) were present in every description, and the findings thus emphasize the power of music to evoke a state of authentic happiness. The importance of taking account of the music, the listener, and the situation in order to fully understand these experiences is underlined. © 2011, European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music. All rights reserved.
... How exactly these findings generalize to other performers, listeners, listening contexts-which continue to expand (Clarke, 2005;Pitts, 2005Pitts, , 2016Pitts and Spencer, 2008;Schober, 2014)and audience measures remains to be seen. The range of possible combinations of features is enormous, but from existing evidence and our own experience we hypothesize that the following variables (at least) could plausibly affect how likely listeners are to share understanding with performers and with each other: ...
This study explores the extent to which a large set of musically experienced listeners share understanding with a performing saxophone-piano duo, and with each other, of what happened in three improvisations on a jazz standard. In an online survey, 239 participants listened to audio recordings of three improvisations and rated their agreement with 24 specific statements that the performers and a jazz-expert commenting listener had made about them. Listeners endorsed statements that the performers had agreed upon significantly more than they endorsed statements that the performers had disagreed upon, even though the statements gave no indication of performers' levels of agreement. The findings show some support for a more-experienced-listeners-understand-more-like-performers hypothesis: Listeners with more jazz experience and with experience playing the performers' instruments endorsed the performers' statements more than did listeners with less jazz experience and experience on different instruments. The findings also strongly support a listeners-as-outsiders hypothesis: Listeners' ratings of the 24 statements were far more likely to cluster with the commenting listener's ratings than with either performer's. But the pattern was not universal; particular listeners even with similar musical backgrounds could interpret the same improvisations radically differently. The evidence demonstrates that it is possible for performers' interpretations to be shared with very few listeners, and that listeners' interpretations about what happened in a musical performance can be far more different from performers' interpretations than performers or other listeners might assume.
... Very few studies have attempted to investigate the impact on traditional concert audiences of listening to live performances of classical music that vary in their expressive intent. Some studies have measured the subjective responses of audience members via questionnaires and/or interviews (Dobson, 2008;Pitts, 2005;Pitts & Spencer 2007;Thompson, 2006Thompson, , 2007, but none of them directly addresses responses to the improvised or spontaneous elements of the performance. Neither, as far as we are aware, have there been any studies measuring activity in the brains of individuals listening to improvised music. ...
ABSTRACT: This paper explores the characteristics and impacts of adopting an improvisatory approach to the performance of classical chamber music. Improvisatory approaches to the classical repertoire, once widespread, are nowrare in contemporary professional performance practice and so there are few opportunities to study it. This study attempts to fill a gap in knowledge by obtaining data during a live professional concert performed by a chambertrio. Each of five pieceswas performed twice, with and without the adoption of an improvisatory approach. The contrasting timing and dynamic features of the two performances were analysed, differential audience response was measured by questionnaire, and synchronised comparative EEGanalyses were undertaken on data from all three performers and two audiencemembers. Audience members rated the improvised performances moreimprovisatory in character,moreinnovative in approach,moreemotionally engaging,moremusically convincing, and more risk-takingthan the non-improvised (regular) performance. During the improvised performances, the musicians showed less activity in cortical areas associated withsustained attentionandmoreactivation ofmotivational areas Music Performance ResearchCopyright © 2013Royal Northern College of MusicVol. 6: 1-38ISSN 7155-9219
Article2and areas relatedto free will as well as planning and coordination of movements. The improvised performances resulted in greater activation of areas for motor planningin both performers and audience members. Improvised performances were characterised by a larger tactus and a more coherent phrase structure than the regular performances, which displayed a regular and somewhat rigid short-term pulse. The data provide prima facieevidence that improvised performances of the classical repertoire can heighten musical quality andaudience engagement.KEY WORDS:classical improvisation, EEG measurement, performance analysis, audience response
This paper examines innovation in times of festival crises from a governance perspective using legitimacy theory. We conduct a case study of Adelaide Festival around three crises based on data drawn from annual reports, festival programs and media articles from 1960 to 2021. Each crisis raises questions about the need to innovate, whether due to economic concerns or for new approaches to artistic programming, in order to safeguard legitimacy. However, the type of innovation varies based on internal and external environmental factors. Findings reveal tensions ranging from internal board and external stakeholder use of governance mechanisms, depending on the crisis and perceptions around art forms e.g., elitism and Aboriginality. The findings provide insights on how appropriate use of governance mechanisms can help to balance tensions between maintaining legitimacy and promoting innovation. Innovation, nonetheless, did not reposition the festival in the long-run: it remains elitist, compromising artistic vision.
This is the first introductory survey of western twentieth-century music to address popular music, art music and jazz on equal terms. It treats those forms as inextricably intertwined, and sets them in a wide variety of social and critical contexts. The book comprises four sections – Histories, Techniques and Technologies, Mediation, Identities – with 16 thematic chapters. Each of these explores a musical or cultural topic as it developed over many years, and as it appeared across a diversity of musical practices. In this way, the text introduces both key musical repertoire and critical-musicological approaches to that work. It historicises music and musical thinking, opening up debate in the present rather than offering a new but closed narrative of the past. In each chapter, an overview of the topic's chronology and main issues is illustrated by two detailed case studies.
COVID-19 has impacted several sectors, designing news way of collaboration and interaction with customers and partners. The performing arts sector is one of the most affected; activities have been stopped for months and months but, at the same time, the sector has embarked on a systemic transition where old, unsustainable practices have been replaced with more sustainable and technology-based alternatives. Through a narrative literature review, the paper discusses needs, current studies based on immersive technologies, strengths and weakness to be managed, opportunities to be leveraged and threats to be overcome, in order to improve competitiveness and plan future actions. Academics and practitioners can benefit from the results to address their current research and activities.KeywordsPerforming artsCOVID-19Immersive technologiesTechnological transformationNarrative literature review
The Performing forms of traditional instruments can be summed up as “Performer - Instrument - Performance venue - Audience” such a field. With the development of science and technology, the performance in the form of traditional instrument audiovisual and experience are changed. Starting from the visual stimulus, auditory stimulus, Interactive stimulus three aspects, this paper sorts out the changes made by traditional Musical Instruments to performance, venues and instruments. The research finds that the traditional musical instrument performance has changed into a kind of artistic expression under the Science Technology Art, and has produced a qualitative difference with the traditional musical instrument performance. Performance is characterized by high behavioral participation, high interactive immersion experience and high technological content.KeywordsChinese traditional instrumentAudience Experience and EngagementScience Technology Art
Theatre performance is forming a trend in countries like China. However, the study of enhancing audience experience in theatre is not conducted enough. The research shows that the major requirements of the audiences on theatre performance include immersion, self-resonance and self-identification. To fulfill their needs, a product design called ESTENDERE is proposed. It is a redesign of the traditional ticket but integrated with linear motor and an optical heart rate sensor and can be reassembled into a bracelet. By generating different vibration patterns which are enabled by the haptics brought from the linear motor, the sense of engagement and immersion could be partly improved. However, the choice of proper pattern which can suit the scene relates to the faith in simulation of the story. In addition, a symbolic memorial in the design can foster a sense of self-identification among the audience. By recognizing a shared experience, it is easier to form a conversation about the performance so that self-resonance could be enhanced during the process. Furthermore, the infographic on the ticket provides a preview for the audiences to get familiar with the performances, which helps them understand the plot more easily. Finally, heart rate data is used to monitor emotional feedback so that the performance could be improved later. The user evaluation results showed that, by applying the parameters above to ESTENDERE, users can gain an improved experience in theatre.
This research proposes to come to terms with musical performance. An inclusive definition of musical performance is sought, which can provide a basis for further investigation into other issues concerning other disciplines within the performing arts. The authors feel compelled to propose an inclusive understanding of performance-as-event prior to pursuing other matters including meaning. The point of departure for this research is a sociological perspective (McCormick, 2006) in which musical performance is considered as a social process, and as such, a consequence of historical evolution of social structures leading to the modern social situation.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss findings from an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)-funded research project into the heritage culture of British folk tales. The project investigated how such archival source material might be made relevant to contemporary audience via processes of artistic remediation. The research considered artists as “cultural intermediaries”, i.e. as actors occupying the conceptual space between production and consumption in an artistic process.
Design/methodology/approach
Interview data is drawn from a range of 1‐2‐1 and group interviews with the artists. These interviews took place throughout the duration of the project.
Findings
When artists are engaged in a process of remediation which has a distinct arts marketing/audience development focus, they begin to intermediate between themselves and the audience/consumer. Artist perceptions of their role as “professionals of qualification” is determined by the subjective disposition required by the market context in operation at the time (in the case of this project, as commissioned artists working to a brief). Artists’ ability (and indeed willingness) to engage in this process is to a great extent proscribed by their “sense-of-self-as-artist” and an engagement with Romantic ideas of artistic autonomy.
Originality/value
A consideration of the relationship between cultural intermediation and both cultural policy and arts marketing. The artist-as-intermediary role, undertaking creative processes to mediate how goods are perceived by others, enables value-adding processes to be undertaken at the point of remediation, rather than at the stage of intermediation.
Effective audience engagement with musical performance involves social, cognitive and affective elements. We investigate the influence of observers’ musical expertise and instrumental motor expertise on their affective and cognitive responses to complex and unfamiliar classical piano performances of works by Scriabin and Hanson presented in audio and audio-visual formats. Observers gave their felt affect (arousal and valence) and their action understanding responses continuously while observing the performances. Liking and familiarity were rated after each excerpt. As hypothesized: visual information enhanced observers’ action understanding and liking ratings; observers with music training rated their action understanding, liking and familiarity higher than did nonmusicians; observers’ felt affect did not vary according to their musical or motor expertise. Contrary to our hypotheses: visual information had only a slight effect on observers’ arousal felt affect responses and none on valence; musicians’ specific instrumental motor expertise did not influence action understanding responses. We also observed a significant negative relationship between action understanding and felt affect responses. Ideas of empathy in musical interactions motivated the research; the empathy framework in relation to musical performance is discussed. Nonmusician audiences might be sensitized to challenging musical performances through multimodal strategies to build the performer-observer connection and increase understanding of performance.
From the moment Thomas Edison spoke the words “Mary had a little lamb” into his phonograph machine in 1877, two separate modes of performance came into being—live concerts and recordings. Now irrevocably separate processes and products,¹,² the disjuncture between these modes of performance seems to have instilled in many musicians a dislike of recordings, an anxiety that is quite different from that associated with performing live. The advent of recording is arguably one of the greatest and most transformative change that musicians have had to deal with, until now. Almost overnight (as has recently happened to musicians as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic), they were expected to cope with a completely new way of sharing their performances with an audience².
A rather evocative example of that situation is presented in the 1999 movie The Legend of 1900, a film about an orphan boy abandoned as a baby on a transatlantic ship. He is raised by the ship’s crew, and as he grows up it quickly becomes clear that he is a musical genius; he becomes a virtuoso pianist and pays his way by joining the ship’s band. A record producer (a character probably based on Fred Gaisberg, the early sound engineer known for his recordings of Enrico Caruso and Adelina Patti³) hears of his prodigious talent and comes aboard to make a recording. In the scene in question, the recording session is about to begin and the young pianist stares worriedly at the recording horn and attached equipment. As he turns to the keyboard, he asks apprehensively: “This is gonna hurt, isn’t it?” His performance is magical, but when he hears the master played back to him, he is disturbed by its eerie disembodied emulation of his playing. He panics and grabs the master and, muttering through clenched teeth “I won’t let my music go anywhere without me,” breaks it into pieces.
The folklore festival is a cultural meeting in a specific period of time, it is a space where artists, festivals managers, local people and general audiences meet to generate cultural value. This research shows how folklore´s artists and cultural managers have become the base to safeguard the intangible cultural heritage. The paper analyzes how the management and artists creation have developed to the maximum level promoting the cultural dialogue among society. This work is based on a conceptual mix of three study axes (intangible cultural heritage, folklore festivals, and, artists and festival managers) with the aim to answer the question: Could folklore festivals add value and support the appropriation of intangible cultural heritage? An analysis is made from the cultural exchange environment lived inside festivals and it is taken directly from people involve within the festival. By analyzing this environment and interaction, a dynamic and objective vision about the importance of the folklore festivals is obtained as well as it is shown how this interaction really contributes to safeguard the intangible cultural heritage through music-dance. Finally, the results of the analysis and methodological approach are exposed. The results of the new technologies and social networks reveal the special role they play in the diffusion of the intangible cultural heritage and how much they contribute to the achievement of the UNESCO´s objectives.
This article takes a site-specific, interactive sound installation called Pleasure Garden as a space for thinking about contemporary forms of musical experience. I develop a relational account of the ‘co-reception’ of Pleasure Garden , not centred on listening subjects, but distributed across audience members, artists, researchers and the more-than-human assemblage of the installation itself. I also discuss the effects of several overlapping cultures of ‘audiencing’ associated with Western art music, sound art and other forms of cultural experience – variously individualistic, distracted and participatory – characteristic of late capitalism. Tracing how Pleasure Garden both responded to and was interrupted by these wider forces, I take this case as suggestive of a deep ambivalence: that musical experience is at once powerfully conditioned and generatively uncertain. Throughout the article, problems of method, interpretation and representation intertwine, raising questions about how to study forms of musical experience that evade conventional ethnographic enquiry.
This chapter provides a critical overview of the existing literature on audience research and audience engagement. It surveys the seminal contributions to the rapidly emerging field of audience studies and classifies its recurrent themes into the following categories: the pacification of audiences; power, elitism and class; cultural policy, participation and co-creation; immersive performance; performance venues, spaces and places; performance as ritual; reception theory and semiotics; research methodologies; the audience experience; value and impact research; young audiences; arts marketing and management; audience engagement and enrichment. The aim of this taxonomy is to inform a new paradigm for audience studies in the context of the performing arts.
This chapter provides a critical summary of the existing debates about cultural value and critically explores the diverse and contested notions of value that are relevant to the performing arts. It achieves this by interrogating a series of core questions: What do we know about cultural value and what is the purpose of asking questions about it? Who wants to know what about cultural value? Why and how do they want to know? In what sense are experiences of the performing arts significant to audiences? What are the most effective ways to evaluate these experiences? What are the implications of this for arts organisations and for cultural policy? In response to these questions, the chapter contends that only interdisciplinary and multi-perspectival approaches will ever be nuanced enough to capture the multidimensional value of audiences’ experiences.
With live performance audience research frequently relying on cultural organisations to facilitate access to their audiences, this article addresses the issues involved in evidencing spectators’ responses via discursive methodologies. Recalling a series of empirical projects conducted over the past ten years with a range of theatre practitioners, it examines the conflicts involved in carrying out scholarly studies of audience reception against cultural organisations’ pressures to produce their own ongoing audience evaluations. Examining key concerns about audience research raised by creative practitioners in varying theatrical contexts, from site-specific to building-based work, it addresses the difficulties of understanding live performance reception and aesthetic experience via impact frameworks. It begins by situating these three operations in the context of Knowledge Exchange (KE) between academics within Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and those in the creative industry sector.
This study aimed to uncover potential effects on and meanings experienced by audience members who participated in performances (‘participants’) of intentional efforts to integrate participatory elements in art music practice. We document a recent project in which two contemporary composers were commissioned to write new pieces including parts for audience participants. We analysed observational and questionnaire data from three concerts that interrogated the experiences of participants at three participatory performances in different countries (n = 273), and identified key emergent themes from participant responses: special group experience, interactive musical experience, experiencing shifting power relationships as well as an evaluative theme about the consequences of participatory elements. These categories connected substantially to concepts of active/passive, empowerment and community prevalent in discourses about participatory theatre. Quantitative analysis of participants’ ratings showed high levels of affective and cognitive engagement, moderated most by prior attendance at a preparatory workshop, and least by demographics or levels of prior musical engagement/experience.
The following dissertation contextualises, reflects upon and appraises a ten year period in the life of Gabriel Prokofiev; composer, record producer, DJ and founder of the live music events company and record label, 'nonclassical'. Gabriel Prokofiev (b. 1975) is the son of multidisciplinary artist, Oleg Prokofiev (1928-1998) and grandson of the eminent twentieth century Soviet composer, Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953).
By coalescing my musicological quantitative research with my pertinent professional music industry experience, this dissertation will chart the development of Gabriel Prokofiev's career as a composer of both, electroacoustic works and more traditional 'classical' compositions, alongside the evolution of nonclassical between 2004 and 2014. Initially, in order to contextualise Gabriel Prokofiev's situatedness within his twenty-first century musical environment, the paper will reflect on influential twentieth century philosophical movements, such as modernism, postmodernism and altermodernism and will consider how the musical engagement of artists and audiences alike, has been effected by each successive ethos.
In considering Gabriel Prokofiev's musical fervour for electronic dance music and hip-hop, the paper will examine significant conceptual and physical developments within those genres and how their evolution impacts not only on Prokofiev's electroacoustic and classical compositions, but the naissance and advancement of nonclassical itself. Following a detailed exposé of nonclassical's developing 'London scene', the paper will present a series of extended analytical reflections upon Gabriel Prokofiev's seminal works (written during the period under examination), Concerto for Turntables No. 1, Violin Concerto No. 1 (1914) and Baby Got Back, in order to emphasise his particular approach to composition and audience engagement.
Ultimately, this project will assess the validity of the approaches, used by Gabriel Prokofiev and nonclassical, in attempting to affect the widely perceived, long-established and ingrained limitations, rituals and barriers that the Western Classical Music Tradition has imposed upon itself.
In 2014, the Chicago Humanities Festival implemented a pilot program geared towards engaging students with live performance. Built from the Stages, Sights & Sounds Festival, two teaching artists—one focused on theater and one focused on visual art—worked with two different grade levels and schools to independently design an arts-integrated project. The goal of the Stages Engagement Pilot program was to expand and explore students’ understandings of their experiences as an audience member in a live, multimedia production. With a short timeline of only two months to collect data, the evaluator and program manager collaborated to define student engagement and compare changes in students’ attitudes towards live performance. The limitations of a small-scale evaluation and implications of this work are also discussed.
Este artigo teve como objetivo identificar quais atributos impactam de forma mais significativa na satisfao dos frequentadores de shows musicais e na socializao entre eles quando inseridos neste tipo de evento. Para tanto, foi empregada uma metodologia na natureza qualitativa, realizando-se grupos focais. Dentre os principais resultados deste estudo, notou-se que quando se trata de satisfao dos frequentadores de shows musicais, os fatores que mais influenciaram o pblico estiveram relacionados aos servios oferecidos com destaque para oferta de bebidas, limpeza dos banheiros e filas que se formam no evento organizao, infraestrutura do show e performance dos artistas. Por sua vez, em relao socializao dos frequentadores deste tipo de evento, constatou-se que a maioria dos entrevistados costuma ir a shows musicais acompanhada de outras pessoas, porm alguns no excluram a possibilidade de comparecer sozinhos quando se trata de um artista conhecido para eles.
Die Events Wiener Neujahrskonzert, Wacken und Ostervigil im Vergleich zu untersuchen, unternimmt Adrian-Hagen Willhöft. Die drei unterschiedlichen Massenveranstaltungen werden anhand von Videomitschnitten analysiert. Ausgangshypothese ist, dass die Phänomene im Publikum von Konzerten vergleichbar sind mit dem Verhalten, das bei Gottesdienstbesuchern während des Gottesdienstes beobachtet werden kann. Das Verhalten des Publikums wird nicht als passiver Akt verstanden, sondern im Sinne der Rezeptionsästhetik als ein eigener produktiver Akt. Ihre Rezeption ist eine eigene Performance. Diese ist der Betrachtungsgegenstand dieser Arbeit. Der dabei benutzte Ansatz zur Analyse ist angelehnt an die Theateranthropologie Richard Schechners.
Music summer schools play a significant role in both amateur and professional music-making in the United Kingdom. For the amateur, they are a holiday opportunity for ‘serious leisure’ (Stebbins 2007); their residential status permits an escape from participants’ everyday life (Pitts 2005) both in terms of social and musical activity. For the aspiring professional and conservatoire student they give the opportunity to receive high level tuition from established professionals in the company of their peers. The majority of summer schools exist in distinct spaces for either the vocational or avocational musician. Dartington International Summer School, founded in 1948 as the first summer school in the UK and with the stated aim of providing opportunities for every type of musician, is anomalous in its combination of vocational and avocational musicians. It is attended by amateur, aspiring professional and professional musicians, many of whom have been participating over an extended timeframe.
Drawing on Pitts’ work on musical participation at the COMA summer school in which the amateur and professional occupy separate spheres, the chapter uses data from a qualitative case study of Dartington which has taken part over the last two years. It uses theories of leisure as symbol, play and the other (Borsay, 2006) and Bahktin’s theory of the ‘carnivalesque’ as lenses to view the differing experiences of the participants and the potential impacts on their identity both within and outside the summer school. Mantie’s concept of the learner-participant dichotomy (2012) is also used to shed light on the clashes and complementarity arising from the differing intentions – musical learning or leisure activity – of the participants.
The chapter discusses how the leisure-learning context of the summer school impacts on participants’ musical identity, and can serve both to challenge and reinforce hierarchical status relationships between vocational and avocational musicians.
This article responds to the arts policy and research call for better understandings of arts audiences—actual and potential. The authors report on the application of Dervin's Sense-Making Methodology (SMM) to audience research. SMM is an approach developed specifically for providing data useful to informing policies and practices of institutions mandated to serve publics. We review the narrative themes that have emerged from our analyses of accounts of cultural experiences by several hundred informants, and we offer five sample applications that illustrate potentials and their implications for arts policy and practice.
Después de diez años, el cine y la ópera han consolidado un espectáculo en expansión global. Tras haber definido, en el año 2012, las características tecnológicas y comerciales que convertían estas retransmisiones en productos audiovisuales sostenibles, nuestro interés se centra ahora en conocer cuáles son las propiedades identitarias que, tras una década, han convertido a la ópera en los cines en un evento mediático nuevo y distinto en términos sociológicos. Superada una perspectiva principalmente tecnológica, el objetivo de esta investigación es, mediante una combinación de metodologías, (a) estudiar las particularidades de los eventos mediáticos operísticos, para (b) explicar algunos de los cambios en los comportamientos sociológicos de sus públicos. Este segundo estudio constata que estos espectáculos abren un “espacio entre convenciones” que brinda una gran oportunidad a ambas industrias culturales para dialogar con nuevas audiencias.
The aim of this exploratory study was to (a) test the viability of the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) as a means of identifying unfolding episodes of everyday musical experience, (b) examine the consistency of situations where music listening occurs by comparing the findings of previous studies involving retrospective data, and (c) investigate the extent to which degree of personal choice over the music and psychological outcomes, such as mood change, are associated with participants' descriptions of the functions of music in particular contexts. Eight non-musicians (aged 16–40 yrs) were asked to carry an electronic pager with them for a 1-week period. A remote computer activated the pagers once at random in every 2-hour period between 0800 and 2200 hrs. On each paging, participants were asked to stop what they were doing as soon as practicable and complete a diary of self-report forms with open-ended and scaled items, allowing "on the spot" thoughts and feelings in real life everyday situations to be recorded as sequential episodes. At the end of the week, each respondent was individually interviewed. Results indicated that the ESM is a robust method for exploring daily musical experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This article presents the implications, objectives and initial results of a current ethnographic research project on music lovers. It looks at problems of theory and method posed by such research if it is not conceived only as the explanation of external determinisms, relating taste to the social origins of the amateur or to the aesthetic properties of the works. Our aim is, on the contrary, from long interviews and observations undertaken with music lovers, mostly in the classical field, to concentrate on gestures, objects, mediums, devices and relations engaged in a form of playing or listening, which amounts to more than the actualization of a taste `already there', for they are redefined during the action, with a result that is partly uncertain. This is why amateurs' attachments and ways of doing things can both engage and form subjectivities, rather than merely recording social labels, and have a history, irreducible to that of the taste for works.
Understanding the theatre space on both the practical and theoretical level is becoming increasingly important to people working in drama, in whatever capacity. Theatre architecture is one of the most vital ingredients of the theatrical experience and one of the least discussed or understood. In Architecture, Actor and Audience Mackintosh explores the contribution the design of a theatre can make to the theatrical experience, and examines the failings of many modern theatres which despite vigorous defence from the architectural establishment remain unpopular with both audiences and theatre people. A fascinating and provocative book.
This study examines the reception of theatrical performances by their audience. Its starting points are (i) Brecht's dramatic theory and practice, and (ii) theories of reading (including semiotics, historical and psychoanalytic analysis, film theory, ideological critique and other approaches to reception). These starting points indicate the main emphases of the study--theoretical approaches and performance practices, rather than the more usual recourse to dramatic texts.^ Semiotics and post-structuralism have stimulated an intensity of interest in theatrical communication and such investigations provide an important impetus for my work. Their applications (and limitations) supply the framework for my own theorizing. Beyond this, my interest in strategies of reception has been provoked by the diverse practices of "alternative" theatres and I draw on the work of many theatre practitioners (from the U.K., U.S., Canada, France, and elsewhere) to illustrate the flexibility of the potential roles of producer and receiver.^ In suggesting a theory of reception in the theatre, I examine theatre's cultural status and the assumptions underlying what we recognize as the theatrical event. The selection of a particular performance is explored and, from this, it is suggested that there is an inevitable, inextricable link between the productive and receptive processes. The theory then looks to more immediate aspects of performance including the theatre building (its geographic location, architectural style, stage-auditorium relationships, lighting systems, etc.), the performance itself, and the post-performance rituals of theatre-going.^ The study shows how cultural systems, individual horizons of expectations and accepted theatrical conventions all activate the reception process and indicates that all these are open to revision in the experience of performance. The description of an individual's experience of a particular performance is not, however, the object of this theory. Instead the concern has been with an individual's culturally-constructed expectations which can be both met and/or challenged in a diverse range of contemporary theatrical performances. ^
Appreciation of fine arts became a mark of high status in the late nineteenth century as part of an attempt to distinguish "highbrowed" Anglo Saxons from the new "lowbrowed" immigrants, whose popular entertainments were said to corrupt morals and thus were to be shunned (Levine 1988; DiMaggio 1991). In recent years, however, many high-status persons are far from being snobs and are eclectic, even "omnivorous," in their tastes (Peterson and Simkus 1992). This suggests a qualitative shift in the basis for marking elite status - from snobbish exclusion to omnivorous appropriation. Using comparable 1982 and 1992 surveys, we test for this hypothesized change in tastes. We confirm that highbrows are more omnivorous than others and that they have become increasingly omnivorous over time. Regression analyses reveal that increasing "omnivorousness " is due both to cohort replacement and to changes over the 1980s among highbrows of all ages. We speculate that this shift from snob to omnivore relates to status-group politics influenced by changes in social structure, values, art-world dynamics, and generational conflict.
The essence of music lies not in musical works but in taking part in performance, in social action. Music is thus not so much a noun as a verb, ‘to music’. To music is to take part in any capacity in a musical performance, and the meaning of musicking lies in the relationships that are established between the participants by the performance. Musicking is part of that iconic, gestural process of giving and receiving information about relationships which unites the living world, and it is in fact a ritual by means of which the participants not only learn about, but directly experience, their concepts of how they relate, and how they ought to relate, to other human beings and to the rest of the world. These ideal relationships are often extremely complex, too complex to be articulated in words, but they are articulated effortlessly by the musical performance, enabling the participants to explore, affirm and celebrate them. Musicking is thus as central in importance to our humanness as is taking part in speech acts, and all normally endowed human beings are born capable of taking part in it, not just of understanding the gestures but of making their own.
The view of cultural stratification that places a discriminating and exclusive elite on the top and an undiscriminating mass on the bottom is questioned. Using a log-multiplicative model to simultaneously stratify occupational groups and music preferences, it is clear that while those in the upper occupational groups are more apt to like symphonic music and to engage in elite arts activities, they are also more apt to like a number of kinds of music and engage in a wide range of non-elite activities. At the same time, those in the lowest occupational groups tend to engage in few activities and to strongly like one single non-elite form of music. The results are interpreted as showing a shift from an elite-to-mass status hierarchy to an omnivore-to-univore status hierarchy.
The Cultural Study of Music is an anthology of new writings that will serve as a basic textbook on music and culture. Increasingly, music is being studied as it relates to specific cultures-not only by ethnomusicologists, but by traditional musicologists as well. Drawing on writers from music, anthropology, sociology, and the related fields, the book both defines the field-i.e., "What is the relation between music and culture?"-and then presents case studies of particular issues in world musics. This book would serve as an introductory textbook for the cultural study of music, an area that is increasingly being taught at the upper-level undergraduate and graduate level. Plus it would appeal to scholars in all areas of music, reflecting the latest and most up to date thinking on the complex issues surrounding how music and culture interrelate.
A landmark in jazz studies, Thinking in Jazz reveals as never before how musicians, both individually and collectively, learn to improvise. Chronicling leading musicians from their first encounters with jazz to the development of a unique improvisatory voice, Paul Berliner documents the lifetime of preparation that lies behind the skilled improviser's every idea. The product of more than fifteen years of immersion in the jazz world, Thinking in Jazz combines participant observation with detailed musicological analysis, the author's experience as a jazz trumpeter, interpretations of published material by scholars and performers, and, above all, original data from interviews with more than fifty professional musicians: bassists George Duvivier and Rufus Reid; drummers Max Roach, Ronald Shannon Jackson, and Akira Tana; guitarist Emily Remler; pianists Tommy Flanagan and Barry Harris; saxophonists Lou Donaldson, Lee Konitz, and James Moody; trombonist Curtis Fuller; trumpeters Doc Cheatham, Art Farmer, Wynton Marsalis, and Red Rodney; vocalists Carmen Lundy and Vea Williams; and others. Together, the interviews provide insight into the production of jazz by great artists like Betty Carter, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, and Charlie Parker. Thinking in Jazz overflows with musical examples from the 1920s to the present, including original transcriptions (keyed to commercial recordings) of collective improvisations by Miles Davis's and John Coltrane's groups. These transcriptions provide additional insight into the structure and creativity of jazz improvisation and represent a remarkable resource for jazz musicians as well as students and educators. Berliner explores the alternative waysâaural, visual, kinetic, verbal, emotional, theoretical, associativeâin which these performers conceptualize their music and describes the delicate interplay of soloist and ensemble in collective improvisation. Berliner's skillful integration of data concerning musical development, the rigorous practice and thought artists devote to jazz outside of performance, and the complexities of composing in the moment leads to a new understanding of jazz improvisation as a language, an aesthetic, and a tradition. This unprecedented journey to the heart of the jazz tradition will fascinate and enlighten musicians, musicologists, and jazz fans alike.
This article investigates the contribution that musical participation makes to people’s lives by reporting on a study carried out at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in August 2001 in Buxton, Derbyshire. The audience are shown to have a strong commitment to the musical genre and its preservation through live performance, whilst the performers are more likely to value membership of their society and the personal satisfaction that comes from successful performance. The festival therefore serves diverse purposes for those who attend it, and raises further questions about the interaction between social, personal and musical experience at events of this kind.
Fandom as Pathology: The Consequences of Characterisation The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media
- Joli Jenson
Joli Jenson, 'Fandom as Pathology: The Consequences of Characterisation', in Lisa A. Lewis (ed.), The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media (London, 1992), 9–29 at 21. 26 Cavicchi, Tramps like Us, 91.
Black and Asian Attitudes to the Arts in Birmingham
- Harris Research
Harris Research Centre (1993) Black and Asian Attitudes to the Arts in
Birmingham. London: Arts Council of Great Britain.
Crossing the Line: Extending Young People's Access to Cultural Venues
- J Harland
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Access to Cultural Venues. London: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
Popular music audiences and everyday life
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D. Hesmondhalgh & K. Negus (Eds) Popular Music Studies (pp. 117-30).
I need no introduction The Guardian
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Tomes, S. (2003) " I need no introduction ", The Guardian, 28 th June 2003.
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Classical Music and Social Result
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(forthcoming) Valuing Musical Participation Aldershot: Ashgate (publication date
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Pitts, S. E. (forthcoming) Valuing Musical Participation. Aldershot: Ashgate
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Poverty: Access and Participation in the Arts
- J Moore
Moore, J. (1997) Poverty: Access and Participation in the Arts. Dublin:
Combat Poverty Agency/Arts Council.