Performing humbleness and haughtiness: dramaturgical perspectives of musical humility and pride

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this study I conduct a dramaturgical analysis to examine the performance of social identity among the members a competitive high school jazz band located in the western United States. Using dramaturgical theory (Goffman, E. 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Anchor Books.), which uses a metaphor with the theatre to interpret human interactions as manufactured social performances, I seek to dissect the underlying motivations concerning the band’s practice of musical humility (Coppola, W. J. 2019. “Musical Humility: An Ethnographic Case Study of A Competitive High School Jazz Band.” Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education 222: 7–26. doi:10.5406/bulcouresmusedu.222.0007). Specifically, I seek to understand the seemingly paradoxical presence of humility during performances and rehearsals alongside transient acts of arrogance as shared during interviews and observed behind-the-scenes. I present my findings through an arts-based storytelling approach divided into three parts: Act I, which explores the onstage symbiosis of the Grant Jazz Band; Act II, which focuses on backstage behaviours occurring during rehearsals and sectionals; and Act III, which examines offstage communications resulting from one-on-one interviews and other interactions occurring off the bandstand.