Too Important to Be Left to the Musicians: Un- Musical Activism and Improvised Fiction
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TOO IMPORTANT TO BE LEFT TO THE MUSICIANS: UN- MUSICAL ACTIVISM AND IMPROVISED FICTION Charlie Bramley Submitted in fulfilment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy International Centre for Music Studies Newcastle University February, 2016 Abstract This thesis articulates a particular conception of improvisation and explores to what extent it can be thought of as a revolutionary socio-music practice that critiques dominant conceptions of musicality through micro-communities of existentialist- anarchist thought and practice. In particular, significant attention will be paid to the role that ideology, power and politics play in these dominant conceptions of musicality, and therefore, a broad yet rigorous analysis of the strands of education and culture in which these ideas are disseminated will be a central concern throughout the thesis. Various auto-ethnographic methods and case-studies will be utilised to explore the practical impact of what I call an un-Musical activism, which seeks to dismantle the binaries between ‘professional’/’amateur’; ‘musician’/’non-musician’; ‘musical’/ ‘unmusical’. I will argue that historically, there has been a strong tendency to want to specialise, stratify, and ultimately contain the musical environment through rigid and restrictive rules for inclusion; that this situation might be getting worse, not better; that various attempts at inclusivity, widening participation and musical ‘freedom’ have maintained the same core components of exclusion; and that it is only by thinking beyond colonial notions of inclusivity that improvisation can begin to make sense as revolutionary socio- musical activism which draws upon key components of existentialist and anarchist thought and practice. i For Mam ii Acknowledgments This hasn’t been a straightforward PhD. It has not been a solitary experience, nor have I had the ‘luxury’ of holing myself away and just getting on with it. Having a young family has shaped the PhD, structuring its process and contributing directly to its content. I knew I had to find a way of utilising my family situation to not hinder, but contribute positively, and it has. Sitting at the computer, reading or writing, and my 3 –year old Daughter Arietti coming in and saying ‘stop doing work, let’s be dinosaurs instead’, puts things in perspective, not to mention welcoming new baby Elodie shortly before travelling to Canada for an important symposium on improvisation. There have been difficult times like this, but also, this was the primary reason for making the whole thing a bit more fun, flexible and creative. It was also the reason for the weekly open-access sessions, so I could take Arietti and Elodie along, and be doing research at the same time. Time management has needed to be precise, with me and my partner Laura constantly negotiating the collective work-home balance over the past 4 years has required flexibility on both of our parts and having somehow reached this stage now, I can say wholeheartedly that this has been a cooperative effort in every sense, and I could not have done it without Laura, Arietti and Elodie making it fun, meaningful and real. And of course the endless early morning and late-night conversations we’ve all had throughout this past 4 years has been invaluable to keeping this thing on course. We have also had massive amounts of pragmatic help from both mine and Laura’s parents. I want to say something specific about my parents, Maureen and Rob, and my brother John, who as a family growing up provided me with the best preparation for having a family myself. Life was busy, hectic, noisy, but always, always loving, nurturing and together. The noisy bit is important of course to the concerns here, not just for sonic reasons, but also, because it was during my youth that I learned how to work effectively regardless of what else was going on! My family have always been incredibly supportive of me following what I wanted to do, without judgement or pressure, and they created the space for me to pursue music and writing, which is ultimately why I have ended up doing this. They also gave me the inner confidence to believe in myself, while nurturing iii the outward confidence to stick by my principles with others, and not place others on pedestals of illegitimacy or unjustified authority. This has prepared me well for the various battles I needed to have getting to this point! From an academic perspective, I need to say a few things about certain people. Well, really mainly one person as it happens, my long-term supervisor, Dr. William Edmondes. Because it’s been a really difficult trajectory getting to this position, and while I don’t want to antagonise anyone, it’s fair to say that my development has been shaped almost completely by Will’s direct contributions. I could not have got here without the immense support, encouragement and help Will has provided. He has stepped in when needed from day one, nurtured ideas, allowed me the space to breathe out and express to the fullest my current situation, knowing that given the right kind of dialogue, debate and critical intervention, ideas would progress and develop. This is a very rare and special talent. While other academic staff would respond angrily to informal e-mail exchanges or requests, I would regularly be in contact over late-night informal e-mail exchanges, or sporadic meet-ups at the pub, at gigs, or once even in the Apple Store during a laptop repair! This all contributed towards a personalised supervisory approach that has yielded excellent results. He has gone way beyond the call of duty in his attempts to support my development and my ideas. Through his development of the ICMUS Hub forum, I hugely improved my academic skills of debate, argument and writing; through his development of Felt Beak, I hugely improved my confidence in playing music and this enabled me to completely re-define my relationship with music. This PhD wouldn’t actually have existed at all without his influence. In fact, to go even further, I’m not even sure I would have gone through with any of my degrees. I came to University with not much hope or excitement about it, and certainly didn’t consider post-graduate education as a possibility. However, Will’s energy and distinctive approaches radically inspired and completely re-energised me, extracting my potential and guiding me through each step, and I can’t thank him enough. I need to also thank Professor Elaine Campbell, who stepped in at the final year as a secondary supervisor replacement, and provided the perfect amount of stability, organisation and structure to the final year. Elaine’s comments and contributions to the iv thesis have been incredibly astute, intelligent, timely, relevant and encouraging. I have always come away from meetings feeling energised and productive. She has helped tremendously over this past year and I am hugely appreciative of her coming on board and supporting the project the way she has. And of course, I could not have done any of this without the financial assistance of the AHRC studentships for both the MLitt and the PhD. I need to close this section though by giving a very special dedication to my Mother who, after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2013, recently died. Her devotion to providing everything we could need as a family, both emotionally and practically, has been a constant source of inspiration and she will always be my inner voice that guides me. She showed me the way by her constant questioning of authority wherever it existed, and her immense bravery in the face of adversity. I know that I could not have got here without her influence, not least the daily late-night conversations about ideas, work and life that shaped so much of how I view the world. I know how proud it will make her to see this in print, and so I dedicate this to her. v vi Table of Contents Abstract i Dedication ii Acknowledgements iii Table of Contents vii List of Figures ix Introduction 1 Overview 5 Chapter 1: The Structuralist Membrane of Music Education: Social, Cultural, and Institutional Disseminations 9 The Ideology, Power and Politics of Musical Meaning 9 Only Those with Special Skills and Natural Ability – Problematizing Music Education and Research 18 Music Manifesto 25 Musical Futures 29 Listening to Children – which children, and in what context? 39 The Creative Music Education Movement .... 47 Cleaning Schafer’s Ears 51 The Child as Modernist 56 Alternative Communities? 61 Music is too Important to be left to the Musicians 72 Summary 77 Discrepant Anachronism 1 – Interview between Suzy Spleen and Slack Nutella 78 Chapter 2: Power, Politics, Ideology: Revolving, Re-visioning and Revolutionising the Avant-Garde 88 Eurological: Modernism, the Euro-American Avant-Garde and Blowing up the Past 88 John Cage 89 Chance and Improvisation 94 Stockhausen: Intuitive Music 96 Derek Bailey: ‘Non-Idiomatic Improvisation’ 99 Afrological: Cleavages of the Past, Living Through the Horn and Being Present in the Present 103 The Absence of the Black Avant-Garde 110 Free-To/Free-From 121 Free-From 121 Free-To 127 Coding the ‘Free’ out of Jazz: What’s so Difficult about Difficult Music? 137 Free for Whom? Maintaining the Male Dominant Stasis in ‘Free’ Music. 148 Summary 158 Discrepant Anachronism 2 – Interview between Dr. Senate Cogg and Slack Nutella 159 Chapter 3: Building un-Musical activism: Auto-Ethnography and Ethnographical Case- Studies from 2011-2014 172 vii Auto-Ethnographic Descriptive Research: An unmusical Journey 172 Institutional Obstacles. Newcastle