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Chapter 2 ON THE RITUAL PERFORMANCE In a highlycritical article on modern American painting, the journalist Tom Wolfe once wrote: 'Frankly, these dayswithout a theory to go with it, I can't seea painting'.1 He was right in a more general sense than perhaps he knew, since each of us brings to the processes of both artistic creation and the contemplation of art works a number of notions which, although it might be dignifying them too much to call them a theory (since for the most part they are unexamined and even held unawares),do nevertheless add up to a set of assumptions and values. Since I intend in this book to examine critically some commonly held assumptions concerning the nature and function of the art of music, it seems only fair to make the reader aware of my own premises, in so far as I myself am aware of them (since it is not possible ever to become consciously aware of all the assumptions on which one operates). I must ask the reader therefore to bear with me while I rehearse and enlarge on them; they are simple but they are also, I believe, profound in their implications, not only for our approach to the art of music, but also (since what I might call my pre-assumption is that the way in which we approach music has a bearing on the way in which we approach the business of living) for our very lives themselves. These assumptions are open to either verification or falsification in the best scientific manner by reference to the musical experience which every single one us has had, and it is indeed vital that the reader should bring the evidence of his or her own experience to bear on what I have to say, since that can in itself be a first step towards reclaiming the musicality and the power of musical judgement that belong to all of us. 50 Music of the Common Tongue My first assumption is that music is not primarily a thing or a collection of things, but an activity in which we engage. One might say that it is not properly a noun at all, but a verb; the absence of a verb in English, as in most European languages, to express this activity is significant, and may point towards the European attitude to the making of music which I discussed in the previous chapter. Certainly the conceptual gap is interesting. I intend using, in this book, from now on, the verb 'to music' (after all, one can say 'to dance' so why not?) and especially its present participle, 'musicking', to express the act of taking part in a musical performance. In order to narrow the gap that is assumed to exist between performers and listeners in European musicking, I define the word to include not only performing and composing (what is composition but the preparation of material for performance?) but also listening and even dancing to music; all those involved in any way in a musical performance can be thought of asmusicking. My coining of this verb should not be put down to perversity, eccentricity or an attempt to be clever; it will simplyclarify the discussion that follows. I shall be using it throughout this book without further apology or explanation. We have seen how European musicians are inclined to consider music as entities; it is in the present-day classical tradition of both performance and composition that we find that this attitude has completely taken over the musical process. Classical musicians and listeners alike today view music as things — treasured symphonies, sonatas, operas, tone poems and concertos handed down to us from a glorious past, as well as those musical works which are offered to audiences by present-day composers. On the one hand, the act of composition is seen as the bringing into existence of one of these sonic objects, a process which does not concern the listener any more than does the making of the radio on which he may be listening to it. On the other hand, the act of performance is seen as rendering a service to those objects, which are assumed to have an existence over and above any possible performance of them; the performer burnishes them and presents them as best he can to an audience whose taskis to contemplate them, in stillness and silence. It is never suggested that either performers or listeners have a creative [18.220.154...

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