Variations on the act of listening Twenty-one orchestra audience development events in light of John Dewey’s ‘art as experience’ metaphor Njörður Sigurjónsson Thesis submitted to the City University, London as part of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. June 2009 1 Table of Contents Table of Figures ......................................................................................................... 4 Declaration ................................................................................................................. 6 Abstract ...................................................................................................................... 7 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 8 2 Orchestra ‘audience development’, its critics, and Dewey’s pragmatist metaphor of ‘art as experience’ ........................................................................................................ 28 2.1 Defining ‘audience development’ ...................................................................... 32 2.2 Criticism of the marketing discourse and the ‘customer’ metaphor .................. 43 2.3 Art as experience, pragmatist aesthetics and the political project of re- describing ................................................................................................................. 53 2.4 Thinking with music: Dewey and Adorno ......................................................... 62 2.5 Summary ............................................................................................................ 65 3 The Event of Enlightenment ..................................................................................... 67 3.1 Autonomous music ............................................................................................ 70 3.2 The modernisation of the orchestra concert ....................................................... 79 3.3 Artwork aesthetics: The musical museum and the canon .................................. 89 3.4 Summary ............................................................................................................ 95 4 Method: Review of events in light of the ‘art as experience’ metaphor ................... 97 4.1 Defining the concert frame: The event as a temporal aesthetic organisation .... 98 4.2 Event selection ................................................................................................. 102 4.3 Event involvement: The familiar and the strange ............................................ 104 4.4 Reviewing scheme ........................................................................................... 106 4.5 Metaphor, re-description, and Dewey’s ‘experience’ metaphor ...................... 111 4.6 Summary .......................................................................................................... 118 5 Events: Traditional and alternative structures......................................................... 120 5.1 ‘A whole distant world’: The organisation of the classical orchestra concert . 122 5.2 Noise: Music and the marketing message ........................................................ 127 5.3 Crossing over ................................................................................................... 138 5.4 Re-structuring the concert ................................................................................ 155 5.5 Summary .......................................................................................................... 163 6 Review: Variations on the act of listening .............................................................. 164 6.1 Somaesthetics: The listening body at concert .................................................. 166 6.2 Restructuring with mediators and participation ............................................... 173 6.3 The concert frame: Re-composing and re-framing .......................................... 185 6.4 Summary .......................................................................................................... 192 7 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 193 2 7.1 Audience development theory is reductive ...................................................... 196 7.2 Dewey’s pragmatist aesthetics is a viable alternative discourse ...................... 197 7.3 The Enlightenment heritage opens the way for the ‘customer’ metaphor ....... 198 7.4 Implications for cultural policy, orchestras and programming ........................ 200 7.5 Final thoughts on methodology and future research ........................................ 204 Appendix 1: List of events ......................................................................................... 209 1 The BBC Concert Orchestra: ‘The plain man’s symphony orchestra’ .......... 209 Nightmare Romance: The music of Bernard Herrmann .................................... 211 Johnny Greenwood: Composer in Residence .................................................... 212 2 The Berlin Philharmonic: Participation and practical understanding .......... 213 John Adams’s Century Rolls .............................................................................. 214 Le Sacre du Printemps: A student ballet............................................................ 215 Daphnis et Chloé: A student ballet .................................................................... 216 3 The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra ........................................................ 217 S&M Metallica ................................................................................................... 218 4 The Iceland Symphony Orchestra ................................................................... 220 The Water: Sálin hans Jóns míns ....................................................................... 221 Sensation Nýdönsk ............................................................................................. 222 5 The London Philharmonic Orchestra ............................................................. 223 The Creation. Joseph Haydn.............................................................................. 224 Turnage: Scherzoid ............................................................................................ 225 La Damnation de Faust ..................................................................................... 226 Turnage: When I Woke ...................................................................................... 227 Malcolm Arnold Celebration ............................................................................. 228 Berlioz, Dutilleux, Stravinsky ............................................................................ 229 Dancing with Stars ............................................................................................. 230 Songs for Summer .............................................................................................. 231 6 The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra ................................................................ 232 Classical Spectacular......................................................................................... 233 7 The London Symphony Orchestra ................................................................... 234 Music Makers Workshop.................................................................................... 235 The Rite of Spring .............................................................................................. 236 Open-air concert ................................................................................................ 237 8 Orchestre de Paris .......................................................................................... 238 Orchestre sans frontière .................................................................................... 239 Bibliography and references ...................................................................................... 240 3 Table of Figures Table 1 Top Ten composers .............................................................................................. 90 Table 2 Musical works ...................................................................................................... 91 Table 3 List of the events .................................................................................................. 93 Table 4 List of 15 ‘regular’ concerts ................................................................................ 94 4 Acknowledgements This research project would not have been possible without the personal and practical support of numerous people, and my sincere gratitude goes to my parents and all my friends who asked me ceaselessly how it was going. I would like to thank all the staff at the Department of Cultural Policy and Management, City University. In particular I am indebted to Dr. Juliet Steyn, Senior Tutor for Research and my supervisor, who was there when support was needed the most, and Professor Eric Moody, former Head of Department, who guided my earlier explorations. Special thanks also to Dr. Jenny Kidd and Eliza Reid for inspiring contributions and insights during the final stages of my research. I would like to thank all the people who took time to discuss this project at various stages of the research process. The following individuals deserve special gratitude: Sarah Gee, Director of Communications, City of Birmingham Symphony