Reimagining the Flute Masterclass: Case Studies Exploring Artistry, Authority, and Embodiment

City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 9-2019 Reimagining the Flute Masterclass: Case Studies Exploring Artistry, Authority, and Embodiment Sarah Carrier The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3491 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] REIMAGINING THE FLUTE MASTERCLASS: CASE STUDIES EXPLORING ARTISTRY, AUTHORITY, AND EMBODIMENT by SARAH CARRIER A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts, The City University of New York 2019 ©2019 SARAH CARRIER All Rights Reserved. ii REIMAGINING THE FLUTE MASTERCLASS: CASE STUDIES EXPLORING ARTISTRY, AUTHORITY, AND EMBODIMENT by Sarah Carrier This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Music in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts. _______________ ____________________________________ Date Karen Henson Chair of Examining Committee _______________ ____________________________________ Date Norman Carey Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Jonathan Shannon, Advisor Emily Wilbourne, First Reader Judith Lochhead, Second Reader Karen Henson, Reader THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract REIMAGINING THE FLUTE MASTERCLASS: CASE STUDIES EXPLORING ARTISTRY, AUTHORITY AND EMBODIMENT by Sarah Carrier Advisor: Jonathan Shannon This work explores the flute masterclass as an aesthetic, ritualized, and historically reimagined cultural practice. Based on fieldwork that took place between 2017 and 2019 in the United States, in Italy, and on the social media platforms Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, I argue that the masterclass—an extension of the master/apprentice system that dominates learning in the classical music tradition—is characterized by embodied qualities of artistry and authority. These qualities are not inherent, but are perceived through subjective, social, familied, and affective bodies. Chapter One outlines the main themes and the research design. Chapter Two is a case study that analyzes the concept of charismatic authority in relation to a world-renowned British flutist, his former teacher, and the influence of the French School of flute playing. Chapter Three discusses the role of sociality in professionalization and the search for artistry in a ten-day masterclass. Chapter Four, a case study of masterclasses at the National Flute Association Annual Convention, explores how flutists perform identity within the “imagined flute community” through gestural excess and modes of conduct. Chapter Five investigates flute iv masterclasses on the social media platforms Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube and the impact of online media on artistry, authority, and embodiment. Keeping in mind Latour’s actor-network theory, the “post-internet,” and the centralized web, I consider the reshaping and disruptive effects of social media on the traditional flute masterclass. I conclude that in order to continue as a relevant site for aesthetic experience and meaning-making, the flute masterclass must fashion a disciplined authority that respects the identity and selfhood of the student performer. v Acknowledgements There are many individuals I would like to thank for making the completion of this dissertation possible. First, I am deeply thankful for my advisor Dr. Jonathan Shannon, whose vast knowledge, endless encouragement, positivity, and incredibly useful suggestions were essential at numerous stages in this process. I would also like to thank Dr. Emily Wilbourne for her meticulous close readings and probing questions which kept me on-point. I am also thankful for my other professors at The Graduate Center, CUNY, especially Dr. Stephen Blum and Dr. Jane Sugarman whose rigorous classes fostered my interest in ethnomusicology and provided a framework to engage in the type of analysis of my field that I might not otherwise have the courage to pursue. There are many flutists who have generously given their time and permission to observe and participate in their classes. Although I cannot name these individuals here for obvious reasons, I am thankful for their candor and openness to this project. I owe profound thanks to Robert Dick, a priceless musical mentor since our first lesson at New York University in 2008. It was his encouragement that led me to pursue doctoral study at The Graduate Center. I am very thankful and supremely lucky to have my husband Eric Morrell who was brave (or foolish) enough to date me while I was in the very beginning stages of writing this dissertation. I am thankful for his support and humor always. My bandmates, Andrea Christie and Ashleé Miller of The Parhelion Trio have also been very patient with me in the final stretch. Without my parents this endeavor would not have been possible. Thank you for being a constant source of support throughout my life. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Front Matter: Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………...iv Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………….vi Chapter 1: Reimagining the Flute Masterclass……………………………………………........1 Chapter 2: Play it Like a Violin!: Charismatic Authority in the Flute Masterclass……………………........27 Chapter 3: Flutes Under the Tuscan Sun: Sociality, Professionalization, and the Pursuit of Artistry in a Ten- day Masterclass…………………………………………………………………………………..50 Chapter 4: For the Love of the Flute: Community, Identity, and Modes of Conduct in Masterclasses at the National Flute Association Convention………………………………………………………….92 Chapter 5: Mirrors and Edges: Flute Masterclasses on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube……………...124 Chapter 6: Concluding Thoughts: Beyond Surfaces……………………………………………………….158 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………170 vii Chapter One Reimagining the Flute Masterclass In this ethnographic study, I analyze the flute masterclass as a historically reimagined practice in which participants perceive authority and artistry through the body. While today masterclasses are a ubiquitous part of musical training, this was not always the case. The foundations of the masterclass were born out of the master/apprentice system of learning, established in medieval Europe by the 14th century through the formalization of guilds (Burwell 2012, 277). Masterclasses took their current shape when, in the mid-19th century, the master/apprentice system moved to a public sphere in the masterclasses of Franz Liszt. This new form of teaching music was both a reflection of its time and a reaction to it. The students’ awe of the musical genius at work, the resemblance of the masterclass format to other theatrical teaching modes of the time (such as the surgery theater), and the international cohort of students (thanks to advances in transportation and communication), all align with historical understandings of this period. What stands out as reactive is the way that Liszt purportedly rejected the routinized, method-based learning taking place in the growing number of music conservatories throughout Western Europe (Walker 1996). Without Liszt’s need to break away from institutionalized training by focusing on interpretation and expression—what we can label as aspects of the artistry of music—masterclasses would be little more than practical workshops on proper technique. Music students today, unlike those of Liszt’s time, can learn from recordings of master performers and have access to more media than ever. However, it is easy to overlook the cultural 1 and social functions that continue to give masterclasses value in Western classical music: 1) how they help sustain the master/apprentice model rather than requiring all master teachers to become modern educators, 2) maintain both the real and symbolic authority of the master separately from the authority of prevailing institutions of routinized musical training, 3) grant students access (albeit very limited) to the master teacher, and 4) utilize the often-neglected features of orality, embodiment, and affect that are essential to the transmission of “the art” of Western classical music. Embodiment One of the main focuses of this dissertation is to approach masterclasses through the performing body, prioritizing the senses, perception, and affect. The senses, which drive embodiment and perception, serve as the “interface between body, self, and the world,” orienting us not only physically, but constructing the “parameters of existence” that define our social group (Hahn 2007, 3). Rather than reducing the flute masterclass to a description of its qualities and features as an objective analysis would require, I analyze this aesthetic praxis through the participants’ engagement with the cultural object, as Csordas (1990) articulates, “framing the body as a starting point for the analysis of culture and the self” (39). Perception, as a pre- objective beginning rooted in the body, is a tool with which to study objects of culture (9). Under theories of embodiment, when perception and practice are analyzed in the body, the distinction of subject and object collapses (40). With this, the body creates an indeterminate methodological field (McGrail, Davie-Kessler, Guffin 2013). While perception and consciousness are rooted in the body, it

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