The lived experiences of professional orchestral musicians are under-­‐researched by scholars in both music and psychology, who are interested in the world of the professional orchestra and the careers of classical musicians. Framed within a Social Constructionist paradigm, the research in this thesis is concerned with investigating the subjective meanings and individual experiences of a group of ten classical orchestral musicians. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was the methodological framework chosen to design and analyse a set of open-­‐ ended interviews with the musicians, which allowed reflexivity and flexibility throughout the research process. Three superordinate themes were identified from a close reading and IPA analysis of the interview data: ‘Musical Foundations’, ‘Struggle: “The Never Ending Quest”’ and ‘Thank You For The Music’. ‘Musical Foundations’ examines the process of musical identity construction for the ten participants, from its early beginnings in childhood, through adolescence and their time in the professional orchestra. Different facets of musical identity construction are outlined and becoming an orchestral musician is viewed as essentially a social process shaped by social interactions, building on a sense of possessing certain ‘innate’ characteristics. ‘Struggle: ‘The Never Ending Quest”’ illustrates the challenges the musicians encountered within the profession and the impact that being a professional orchestral musician had on other aspects of their lives (e.g. personal and social). The fear and conflict the ten musicians experienced is outlined and how the musicians coped and ‘survived’ within the professional orchestra is demonstrated. In addition, the central importance of the identity of ‘orchestral musician’ within the participants’ lives is illustrated. The last theme, ‘Thank You For The Music’ outlines why the musicians continued within the profession despite the struggles summarised by the previous theme. This chapter highlights the autonomy and control the musicians felt they gained within their orchestras and the physiological and emotional connections they experienced with both the profession and classic music itself. Common to all three superordinate themes is their reported power struggle between the musicians and the orchestra, and between the individual and the collective. Another common issue was how central the identity of ‘orchestral musician’ was for all participants, impacting all aspects of their lives. The professional musicians constructed, negotiated and maintained their musical identities in accordance with both their own expectations and those of the classical music genre itself. The research in this thesis raises awareness of the importance of the orchestral musician identity in the musicians’ lives and how an understanding of this can help gain an insight into other aspects of the participants’ lives. Recommendations are made for further research regarding: the lived experiences of classical music students, investigation of current teaching practices in conservatoires and further exploration of the professional structures within an orchestra.

An extensive study on the influences of music education on the forming of musical identities was undertaken. Information obtained from thorough literature review, questionnaires and interviews has been analysed, collated and set out in the dissertation. The review of literature has revealed that there remain few unanswered questions regarding the defining of both music education and musical identities. However, few studies have examined the influences music education has on the formation of identity, particularly concerning the making of music career-choices. The effects of a variety of musical and non-musical developments and/or adaptations may influence the formation of musical identities, since the individual has to develop and adapt alongside these changes. This study was conducted in a multi-cultural South African society, and investigated the influences music education has on the forming of musical identities. The primary purpose of the study was to develop an understanding and awareness amongst professional South African musicians, in practice at the time of the study, regarding the value that music education has on the forming of musical identities. The aim in attaining the said purpose was, firstly, to examine the differences between formal and informal music education, the latter being very prominent in non-Western countries, including South Africa. In this regard musical arts education was also attended to. Secondly, musical identities were delineated so as to view their forming due to music educational influences. Finally, the study examined how prior exposure to different music educational aspects influences professional South African musicians’ career-choices. There were two groups of respondents in the study: <ol> <li>A group of music experts from different music spheres participating in semi-structured interviews, each lasting approximately 45 minutes, that were recorded and then transcribed; and</li> <li>A matched group of music experts asked to complete a questionnaire based on interview questions.</li> </ol> Diverse participants included academics, choir conductors, educators, ethnologists, tertiary music students, performers, psychologists, therapists, and representatives from the private sector. The results indicated that music education, continuously developing and transforming, contributes to one’s musical identities and is crucial to the development of identities, with particular consideration of one’s choice of music career. / Dissertation (MMus)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Music / unrestricted

Denna studies syfte är att undersöka hur gitarrelever på gymnasiet upplever sin relation till gitarren och hur den kan influera deras identitet, självbild och framtidsvision – möjlighetshorisont. Fem kvalitativa intervjuer har genomförts med gymnasieelever på estetiska programmet som alla hade gitarr som huvudinstrument. Studien vilar huvudsakligen på en sociokulturell teoretisk grund där stor vikt har lagts på relationen mellan informanterna och deras omvärld i utformningen av intervjuerna och analysarbetet av insamlad data. Den tidigare forskningen som redovisats i arbetet fokuserar på identitet och musikalisk identitet samt möjlighetshorisont då identitetsskapandet och informanternas framtidsvisioner har varit de centrala ämnena i studien. Studien visar att gitarren kan ses som ett verktyg att genom denna förstå och bearbeta sin sinnevärld. Gitarren upplevdes som en stor del av informanternas liv och deras identitetsskapande, både på ett praktiskt plan genom musicerande, övande och utvecklande av teoretisk kunskap men också på ett känslomässigt plan där gitarrutövandet och musiken kunde hjälpa dem att bearbeta och hantera känslor. En viss diskrepans mellan informanternas gitarrundervisning och deras gitarrutövande på fritiden kunde även urskiljas i resultatet – någonting som uppmanade till vidare frågeställningar och reflektioner gällande utformning av vissa aspekter kopplade till gitarrundervisningen. Vidare framgick det att titlar och benämningar på sig själv kunde upplevas ha stor vikt i skapandet av den egna självbilden och projektionen av ens image mot omvärlden. / The purpose of this study is to investigate how guitar students in high school experience their relationship with the guitar and how it can influence their identity, self-image and vision for the future – horizon of opportunity. Five qualitative interviews have been conducted with high school students on the arts program, all of which had guitars as their main instrument. The study is mainly based on a sociocultural theoretical basis where great emphasis has been placed on the relationship between the informants' and their surroundings in the design of the interviews and in the analysis of collected data. The previous research reported in the paper focuses on identity, musical identity and the horizon of opportunity since the developing of identity and informants' vision of the future have been the central subjects in the study. The study shows that the guitar can be seen as a tool for understanding and processing one’s worldview. The guitar was perceived as a large part of the informants' lives and their identity development, not only on a practical level through musicianship, practice and development of theoretical knowledge, but also on an emotional level where the guitar practice and music listening could help to process and manage emotions. A perceived division between the informants' formal and their informal guitar practice could also be identified through the results – something that called for further questions and reflections on the design of certain didactic aspects related to guitar teaching. Furthermore, it became clear that certain titles and labels on oneself could be perceived as having great importance in the creation of one's self- image and the projection of one's image towards the outside world.

This work explores the everyday uses of rock music by women rock musicians, fans and DJs (amateurs), in a specific place (Portugal) and time (1990s-2014). Drawing on the work in the two main fields of music sociology and gender studies and its performative perspective to both gender and music (but also taking contributions from techno-feminist studies, science and technology studies, sociology of work, leisure and sports), this research takes a ‘music-in-action’ approach. This approach understands music as a social activity, as a network of connections between people, materials, discourses and activities. Rock music is best understood as a genre-in-action (not just as a semiotic text or reflection), as socio-material practice, in its collective, relational, performative, situated contexts of use - as rock musicking. As such, there are socio-material processes that constrain and enable women (as a minority group) doing and being in a masculinist rock music world. Taking a ‘mutual shaping’ approach to genre and gender, this research also takes into account how people use aesthetic materials in the processes of performative gendered identity making and relationship with others, as well as world building. The data consists of sixty in-depth interviews with Portuguese rockers (between 2012 and 2014), and supplementary field observations and follow-up interviews. The research found that girls and women’s musical opportunities are more restricted, but that they are also actively negotiated. Parental support and the presence of rock fathers in early years, as well as participation in male networks – whether or not a woman is romantically involved with ‘one of the boys’ – throughout the life course are pathways into rock musicking, as documented in other studies. Adding to the literature, this research highlights how not only in early years, but throughout the life course, rock musicking practices are dependent upon specific aesthetic (musical and visual) gender performances. From female masculinity to alternative femininities, rock music and its visual and material cultures are ‘active ingredients’ in doing and undoing gender. In Portugal, the absence of a strong riot grrrl movement and the lack of female/feminist networks, turns membership in male bands the norm. Consequently, either the “girl in the band’ or girl/female bands have to deal with their ‘novelty’ value. These rockers negotiate the labels of riot grrrl, feminist and grunge within a ‘girl power’ discourse, but mostly, struggling not to let their musical skills and value be obscured by their sex/ualization – developing high standards of musicianship, managing on-stage bodily disclosure, naming and praising their peers, aligning with an Anglo-Saxon rock female canon, but also othering female fans. In male bands, due to male skill ascription, women are segregated into traditional female musical roles, the singer, the bass player. On the other hand, women drummers get token value. At the expenses of instrument specialization, women undertake multi-instrumental pathways. Becoming musical agile selves and re-valuing (traditionally female) musical roles, playing conventions and body techniques. Women also appropriate mixers to spread their love for rock music. These women creatively expand rock music’s material culture, crafting it with clothes, acessories and even food. For rockers who are mothers, rock musicking becomes a technology of mothering. Taking Portuguese women rockers and their socio-musical practices, at both the everyday level and on the “spectacular” rock stage, this research adds to the international and growing body of work on gender and (rock) music across different disciplinary fields (sociology, popular music studies, feminist studies). It extends the traditional focus within popular music scholarship on Anglo-American rock culture, feminist mo(ve)ments, and subcultures, to place emphasis instead on an age group and place that has otherwise been overlooked.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-08T17:06:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 sergio.pdf: 1368361 bytes, checksum: d58b88db83e0febe9e5867a7ecfbe467 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-16 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This dissertation has as the general objective to understand how the social representations of music, that permeate the social relationships of a Basic Education city school in the interior of Santa Catarina state in Brazil, link with formal and non formal practices of music teaching developed. The specific objectives aimed at understanding how the identity processes of all the investigated subjects relate with the music teaching and learning processes in the context of that school, and identifying and analyzing the several social representations of music constituted and shared by subjects involved direct and indirectly in the musical practices. The qualitative methodology was adopted under the drawing of a case study with an ethnographic approach. The instruments of data collection were individual and focus-group semi-structured interviews with the several participants of the research, documental analysis and participant observation. The data were analyzed under the theoretical framework of the social representations in the perspective of the social psychology by the triangulation among the discursive analysis of the participant subjects, the analysis of the music class plans and the notes of the field diary. The outcomes evidence strong relationship among the music representations constituted and shared by all the participants of this research, their musical identities and the pedagogic practices of the music teaching promoted in the music classes and in the band rehearsal. This specific context of music education shares consensual and contradictory social representations of music promoting the dilution of the borders among the processes of formal and non formal education constituted through a strong complimentary relationship among both / Esta dissertação tem como objetivo geral compreender como as representações sociais de música que permeiam as relações sociais de uma escola de educação básica de um município do interior do Estado de Santa Catarina se relacionam com as práticas formais e não formais do ensino de música nela desenvolvidas. Os objetivos específicos buscaram compreender como os processos identitários de todos os sujeitos investigados se relacionam com os processos de ensino e aprendizagem da música desencadeados no contexto desta mesma escola e identificar e analisar as diversas representações sociais de música constituídas e compartilhadas por sujeitos envolvidos direta e indiretamente nas práticas musicais desta escola. Adotou-se a metodologia qualitativa sob o desenho de um estudo de caso do tipo etnográfico. Os instrumentos de coleta de dados foram entrevistas individuais e grupo-focal semiestruturadas com os vários participantes da pesquisa, análise documental e observação participante. Os dados foram analisados sob o referencial teórico das representações sociais na perspectiva da psicologia social mediante a triangulação entre a análise discursiva dos sujeitos participantes, análise dos planos de aula de música e as anotações do diário de campo das observações. Os resultados apontam para a forte relação entre as representações de música constituídas e compartilhadas por todos os participantes desta pesquisa, suas identidades musicais e as práticas pedagógicas do ensino de música promovidas nas aulas de música e no ensaio da banda. Este contexto específico de educação musical compartilha de representações sociais de música tanto consensuais como contraditórias de forma a promover a diluição das fronteiras entre os processos de educação formal e não formal ali constituídas por meio de uma forte relação de complementaridade entre ambas

This thesis presents research on an amateur composer-oriented Bach choir. Its main purpose is to study the development of musical identities and musical preferences of choir members as they take shape through the collective learning process of rehearsing and performing large-scale choral music. The study analyses how the choral participation and performance creates a certain type of ‘choral capital’ (a combination of social and cultural capital within the choral setting) and how the choristers reconstruct and relate to the composer (J.S. Bach) by creating ‘choral identities’ linked to the composer-orientation of their choir. This study is based on an interdisciplinary approach, seeking concepts and ideas from different fields of study – primarily sociology and music sociology (music in everyday life and the concepts of social and cultural capital in the amateur choral setting) but also music psychology regarding concepts of musical and vocal identities, history of music (especially Bach scholars, previous biographical writings about J.S. Bach), music and education (choral singing as informal music education) and interdisciplinary studies on music, health and well-being. The methodological approach of this research consists of a grounded theory based, single case study where the case was the Croydon Bach Choir in London performing J.S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor, using participant observation (where I sang with the choir for one semester) and qualitative interviews as main research methods and gathering demographic background data on choir members via paper-based survey. Whereas significant research on music performances has been conducted, so far choral research, where the direct participation of the researcher as a member of the choir is used as one of the main research methods, is still quite rare. Results indicate that participants develop socio-musical identity both through their choral participation in general, performance experiences and early music consumption in the family household and the emphasis of the importance of choral singing as a fulfilment instead of pursuing a professional career. Through choral singing, participants developed ‘choral capital’ through a) the effects of collective learning on their musical taste and preferences (thus broadening their musical taste and preferences and reconstructing the composer) and b) the well-being factor of collective singing and communal learning through the process of rehearsing and performing the Mass in B Minor. Furthermore, findings indicated that participants construct Bach as a genius and a devout Lutheran, an image that relates to the romantic image of Bach presented in the late 19th – early 20th century biographical writings on the composer. Thus in general, their choral activities form a valuable addition to their social and cultural capital (´choral capital´), which they use as a source of well-being in everyday life. In addition, participants create a certain ‘choral identity’ by relating to the composer-orientation of their choir; the promotional label of Bach as a synonym for quality choral singing and the emphasis of challenging repertoire.