Abstract

In this session, we will discuss the notions of rigour, improvement, and success in musical performance. We will think about the ways they are measured and determined in ensemble performance and in “private” (rehearsal) and “public” (concert) settings, as well as in the classroom. How do performance spaces shape ensemble dynamics? Who (or what) has power in collective musicking, and how is this power negotiated, distributed, and contested? Do different models of ensemble performance (as a network, as distributed agency, as collective cognition) also offer different ethics of encounter and relation?

This event series aims to reflect on how distributed models of cognition apply to, and change our perception of, musical engagement. Growing interest in music-making practices outside the normative, and ideally sterilised, settings of the concert hall and the studio has already highlighted the extent to which ‘musicking’ creates living, distributed assemblages out of performers, listeners, instruments, and architectural spaces. In each session of the series, the academics, performers, and practitioners interviewed will share their reflections on the way the language and insights of distributed cognition engage and enrich models of aural encounter in fields such as music performance, environmental studies, history, religious studies, and literature.