Musicking in Groningen. Towards a Grounded Theory of the Uses And
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Musicking in Groningen Towards a Grounded Theory of the Uses and Functions of Music in a Modern Western Society Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Sozialwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen vorgelegt von Evert Hendrik Bisschop Boele geboren in Leeuwarden (NL) Göttingen, 2013 Musicking in Groningen Towards a Grounded Theory of the Uses and Functions of Music in a Modern Western Society Evert Bisschop Boele 4 "I have been thinking about existence lately. In fact, I have been so full of admiration for existence that I have hardly been able to enjoy it properly. As I was walking up to the church this morning, I passed that row of big oaks by the war memorial – if you remember them – and I thought of another morning, fall a year or two ago, when they were dropping their acorns thick as hail almost. There was all sorts of thrashing in the leaves and there were acorns hitting the pavement so hard they'd fly past my head. All this in the dark of course. I remember a slice of moon, no more than that. It was a very clear night, or morning, very still, and then there was such energy in the things transpiring among the trees, like a storm, like travail. I stood there a little out of range, and I thought, It is all still new to me. I have lived my life on the prairie and a line of oak trees can still astonish me."1 1 Marylinne Robinson, Gilead. New York: FSG, 2004, pp. 56-57. 5 6 Table of Content Erklärung............................................................................................................................ 11 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ 13 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 17 1.1 Telling a plausible story ........................................................................................... 17 1.2 General and disciplinary backgrounds, research question and aims of the study .... 21 1.2.1 General background of the study ...................................................................... 21 1.2.2 Disciplinary background of the study ............................................................... 22 1.2.3 Research question and aims of the study .......................................................... 25 1.3 Outline of the study .................................................................................................. 25 2. Theoretical backgrounds of the study ............................................................................ 27 2.1 Studying ‘musicking’ on the basis of a culturalist social theory ............................. 27 2.2 The choice for a theory of practice .......................................................................... 28 2.3 Reckwitz’ theory of practice of modernity – putting the individual center stage .... 31 2.3.1 The elements of Reckwitz’ formulation of a theory of practice ........................ 32 2.3.2 The individual in Reckwitz’ theory of practice ................................................. 35 2.3.3 A history of modern subject cultures ................................................................ 35 2.4 Studying the musical present through Reckwitz’ eyes ............................................ 41 2.4.1 Summary ........................................................................................................... 41 2.4.2 Implications....................................................................................................... 42 3. Uses and functions of music – a review ......................................................................... 45 3.1 Studying ‘musicking’ in everyday life ..................................................................... 45 3.2 Uses and functions of music .................................................................................... 45 3.3 Uses of music ........................................................................................................... 48 3.4 Functions of music ................................................................................................... 50 3.5 Studying uses and functions – some points of attention .......................................... 52 3.5.1 A broad view on the uses and functions of music ............................................. 53 3.5.2 A focus on the individual rather than on the social or the cultural .................. 53 3.5.3 A focus on a holistic view of the idiosyncratic individual ................................ 55 3.6 Summary .................................................................................................................. 56 4. Methodological aspects: ethnomusicology-at-home, grounded theory and the narrative- biographical interview ....................................................................................................... 57 4.1 Recapitulation: research question and theory .......................................................... 57 4.2 Ethnomusicology-at-home and the question of estrangement ................................. 59 4.2.1 The problem of making the familiar strange..................................................... 59 4.2.2 Methodological considerations in ethnomusicology-at-home .......................... 62 7 4.2.3 The turn towards qualitative sociology............................................................. 64 4.3 Grounded theory ...................................................................................................... 65 4.4 Working with data from the narrative-biographical interview ................................ 68 4.4.1 In defense of the interview as an ethnographic source of data......................... 68 4.4.2 The narrative-biographical interview ............................................................... 72 4.5 Methodological aspects of the study ........................................................................ 76 4.5.1 Recapitulation ................................................................................................... 76 4.5.2 The interviews and the interviewees ................................................................. 76 4.5.3 Data analysis and theory construction ............................................................. 79 4.5.4 Ethics and reflexivity......................................................................................... 81 4.5.5 Quality aspects of the study .............................................................................. 83 4.6 Summary .................................................................................................................. 84 5. Sketching the wider context ........................................................................................... 89 5.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 89 5.2 A short sketch of the province of Groningen ........................................................... 89 5.3 A short sketch of the musical infrastructure of the province of Groningen ............. 91 5.3.1 Music institutions and music venues in the province of Groningen ................. 91 5.3.2 Commodities on Groningen’s musical market place ........................................ 95 5.3.3 The supply of music performances in the province of Groningen .................... 96 5.4 What individuals in Groningen do with music – a first impression ........................ 99 5.4.1 Active music making ....................................................................................... 100 5.4.2 Reception of music performances ................................................................... 101 5.4.3 Reception of mediated music .......................................................................... 102 5.5 Summary ................................................................................................................ 104 6. Uses of music: what people do with music .................................................................. 107 6.1 Uses in general ....................................................................................................... 107 6.2 Persons ................................................................................................................... 109 6.3 Behavior ................................................................................................................. 112 6.4 Things .................................................................................................................... 114 6.4.1 Audio-visuals................................................................................................... 116 6.4.2 Musical instruments ........................................................................................ 122 6.5 Immaterial resources .............................................................................................. 124 6.6 Place ....................................................................................................................... 128 6.7 Period ..................................................................................................................... 132 6.8 Summary ................................................................................................................ 132 7. Functions of music: what music does with people ...................................................... 135 7.1 Introduction