Abstract
What kinds of live music are available to the citizens of the cities of Groningen and Utrecht? That is the main question in two research projects, of which the databases have been made accessible in the Dataverse City Musicscapes (Lelieveldt & Bisschop Boele, 2018). At first sight databases of statistical research offices provide researchers with clear data about the number of venues and concerts and the participation of audiences (Gemeente Utrecht 2017, Van den Broek 2014). When looking closer we find that in these statistics only the regular (and mainly publicly funded) music venues are included. The authors’ projects show that a substantial part (53–60%) of live music concerts take place on non-regular locations, such as cafés, restaurants, clubs, churches, shopping malls and in open air. They developed a research tool to be able to draw a map of the musical landscape of a city (Musicscape). In this article we will reflect on the goals, research methods, datasets and some results from analysing our datasets. We hope this contributes to the discussion with scholars, music producers and policy makers about the added value of the concept of Musicscapes for the understanding of cultural participation, music performing practices and cultural policies.
Highlights
The term Musicscape is a contraction of the terms “music” and “landscape.” It is inspired by the term “soundscape,” by which the Canadian composer Raymond Murray Schafer (1993, p. 274) meant the sonic environment
Since our goal was to be able to track future offerings a listener can choose from, when he or she is actively looking for a live music experience (Bisschop Boele, 2013)
Some Results In Groningen (2010) as well as in Utrecht (2011) about hundred locations for live music were tracked during our research periods, presenting 297 and 284 concerts respectively in two weeks’ time
Summary
What Is a Musicscape?The term Musicscape is a contraction of the terms “music” and “landscape.” It is inspired by the term “soundscape,” by which the Canadian composer Raymond Murray Schafer (1993, p. 274) meant the sonic environment. It can be described as “the total sound image of a specific place: all sound, coming from nature as well as from man. A Musicscape is part of a soundscape and means “all music that can be perceived at a certain place and a certain time by a human being. Every place – or even every human being – has its own Musicscape, which changes continually. It is very individual and very time and place specific.” (Bisschop Boele, ibid). Most towns and cities have a dense infrastructure of theatres and concert halls for organised theatre, dance and music. Every person follows an individual path through the musical city, many of them with personal sound devices, creating private musicscapes
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