Written Assignment #1 Due 28 April

Explain how one or more of the following concepts and approaches, discussed in the course
so far, have shaped your relationship with a piece of music: embodiment; mimesis;
conceptual metaphor; musicking; music as performance; culture; cultural context;
essentialism; "world music"; history; authenticity; fidelity; staging; gender; elitism;
“Classical music”.

First, describe your previous relationship with this concept or approach, and how this has
changed, considering what factors have led to this understanding. (What in your music
education up until now, or in musical culture generally, has encouraged you to think about
music in different ways to those introduced to you in this course?)

Second, focusing on one piece of music, describe how you now think about this piece
differently and/or hear it differently. What are the advantages (or disadvantages) offered by
this new musical relationship? Your essay should make reference to at least one text used in
class (either in the assigned readings or in recommended additional reading), including at
least one footnote or in-text citation laid out according to the guidelines provided in class.
You should also include a bibliography of up to three sources with full details of your chosen
piece (the recording, YouTube link, score etc. which is your primary mode of experiencing
the music) and any texts cited.

Frances Thorpe

Music as Performance, an examination of the racism is musical social osmosis.

“Music as performance” coined in 2014 by musicologist Nicholas Cook attempts to redefine

the academic nomenclature for analyzing and discussing the conceptualization of music. It
attempts to highlight the ways in which musicologists and the culture surrounding the
academic discussion of music can create cultural bias and limitations to the valuation of
music beyond what is traditionally thought of as academic. The term has two particular take-
a-ways; the esoteric discussion of bigotry resulting from the “work” concept and the “cult of
the written score”, contrasted with the devaluation of performing musicians. And while it is
not a term that directly affects everyone’s relationship with music much like the concepts of
mimesis or conceptual metaphor, the effects of the cultural biases and systemized bigotry that
it attempts to subtly introduce into societal appreciation of music; these effects are painfully
obvious in the development of my personal relationship with music and culture. And I have
grown and become aware of this as a concept and an issue it is the term that has single-
handedly contributed the most to my musical growth since I became aware of the affects my
aversion to non “academic” had on my musicianship but also on my position of privilege
within a multi-cultural musical society. Lastly it is important to look at how this concept has
changed how I hear and think about music in particular through the lens of Michael Jackson’s
“Beat It”.

The death of the author is the complete opposite of reality in music and musicology. Nicholas
Cook coined the phrase “Music as performance” to highlight this ironical erasure of the
performer in musical academia as “[there is] a schizophrenic dissociation between the
discursive, academic knowledge with which they deal as musicologists and the tacit, action-
based knowledge that they rely on as performers.” 1This conundrum arises from the “work-
1 Nicholas Cook, Beyond the Score, Music as Performance, Oxford Scholarship Online, 2014
concept” the idea that the composer holds sovereignty over the music and that they are the
fore-front of the musical “worth” of a performance. We go to see “Brahms 4” or “Beethoven
7” out of recognition of the work rather than the musical interpretation of the conductor or the
audience. Indeed, as Lydia Goehr states (summarized by Harry White) “the absolute
sovereignty of the musical text as the status quo to which performance is secondary” 2 causes
the act of music to relegated as “fine art” in society. The concept of absolute authority and
composer worship that the refusal of “music as performance” creates has wider ramifications
and subtler effects than just the perception of western art music as “fine art” within our
society. The evaluation of the “music as performance” is an open and inviting definition of
what makes music important and “esoteric” through the work-concept and the cult of the
written score we see how music that is neither composer centric nor written is valued less in
musical academia. Those musicians that improvise and don’t study the “written works” are
now inherently less musical because the “fine art” of music is so deftly woven into the
western art canon. Thus music like jazz and blues are viewed as being less challenging than
music by Bach or Mozart. Thus we can see the racism here, music that isn’t stemmed from
western art music is less intellectual, less stimulating and “inferior”. Nicholas Cook’s Beyond
the Score: Music as Performance attempts to redefine music in academic and “esoteric”
conceptualization and thus open up the study of music to music outside of written and
western scores.

Not something I’ve always been aware of the past couple of years have been very interesting
as I’ve realized the systematic bigotry in industries like music. The concept “music as
performance” highlights my journey eloquently and succinctly. Until first year NCEA music I
maintained the opinion that Mozart through Tchaikovsky were inherently superior music and
that anything outside of that was just unimportant to culture. My evaluation of music through
the composer and the erasure of the performer was highlighted to me in a discussion with
New Zealand composer Alex Taylor where upon proclaiming that “I find music like
Penderecki and Schoenberg to be barely more than noise” and that “I don’t really listen to
pop music” he asks what merit the music of Mozart has over those works other than the name
and challenging me to think about how music can be used to express more than just traditions
and conventions. From there my attitude towards music expanded and I started to further
appreciate the erasure and harm that those opinions so inherent in our society can cause. Why
performers of any music, but in particular those of non-western art music, are less than the
composers of 200 years ago and why saying I compose immediately causes the exclamations
of “you must be pretty good at music then” as composed to the relative silence when I
mention my performance experience. This course putting a label and a name on this concept
further allowed me to look at the culture of the music industry and question further aspects
that again attempt to erase the performer and define non Western art genres out of the label of
“fine art” The idea that Mozart or Bach is intellectual music is all around us, it is seen in the
labeling of the piano as esoteric in comparison to the drums as brute force. It is seen in
advertising from the contrast of elegant cinematic ads with classical overdubs and clunky low
budget advertisements with copyright free loops and sound bites. It is seen in the portrayal of
Mozart as a child genius for being a composer at the age of 5 rather than his performance
prowess that is if anything more notable in the achievements of a young 5 five-year-old. With

2 Harry White ‘If It's Baroque, Don't Fix It': Reflections on Lydia Goehr's 'Work-Concept' and
the Historical Integrity of Musical Composition Acta Musicologica
Vol. 69, Fasc. 1 (Jan. - Jun., 1997), pp. 94-104 (11 pages)
so much reinforcement of these notions it is no wonder that Cook’s “music as performance is
so monumental and important for not only musical academia to realize but also just for the
world around us. As long as Mozart is perceived as intellectual and musically superior we
wont be able to eliminate the systematic bigotry and racism that permeates our musical
culture and our society as a whole.

As a musician I have performed my entire life, however compared to the amount of music
I’ve played within my expertise as a classical musician my experiences with pop and non-
euro centric style music within their appropriate contexts my experience is sadly lacking.
Michael Jackson’s hit “Beat It” 3 was the first major experience I had with a rock band and
even as a young intermediate school musician it had a substantial effect on my musical
perspective. The primary take away was that despite the relative “theoretical” simplicity
compared to the music I was and am used to from a music performance the music was in no
means any “simpler” if anything the different rhythmic expectations and the new context of
my playing (keys) within a group context made it a more challenging and musically enriching
experience than similar level orchestral and choral groups I was also playing in at the time.
Looking back at this realization within the lens of Cook’s “music as performance” brought
me to a profound realization about my, and perhaps others, view of musical difficulty. By
correlating the obvious theoretical disparity between the genres with the performative aspects
this was yet another example of how we erase the aspects of performance from the social
osmosis surrounding music. Listening to the music now I hear the aspects that are foreign to
the music I study as things that engage and challenge me and my perspective of music, rather
than hearing the lack of what I expected in “fine art” and thinking less of it because of that. I
now listen to these genres with a completely different ear and outlook than I do to western art
music because of this awareness of the challenges and lessons I learnt through those 6 months
of rock band. There are really no draw backs to this new outlook on music, why would
anyone regret being able to listen to any music and engage with the differences in a
constructive way rather than dismissing music that is different as inferior. I think music
theory hasn’t moved with music performance at the rate it should have and this inconsistency
just serves to highlight why Cook’s “music as performance” nomenclature will only help
educate and engage more people with more styles of music as we grow up in a music
landscape more cognitive of the racist origins of concepts like the “cult of the written score”
and “the work concept”

Music as Performance enables us as musicians to analyse and comprehend music within a

scope that is designed for one specific genre. It enables greater understanding and empathy
between genres and practices and closes the completely irrational gap between music
intellectualism and the current reality of the music landscape.

Bibliography
Nicholas Cook, Beyond the Score, Music as Performance, Oxford Scholarship Online, 2014
Harry White ‘If It's Baroque, Don't Fix It': Reflections on Lydia Goehr's 'Work-Concept' and
the Historical Integrity of Musical Composition Acta Musicologica
Vol. 69, Fasc. 1 (Jan. - Jun., 1997), pp. 94-104 (11 pages)
Michael Jackson, Beat It, Thriller, 1983, Epic

3 Michael Jackson, Beat It, Thriller, 1983, Epic