Abstract
In this paper we argue that our comprehension of musical participation—the complex network of interactive dynamics involved in collaborative musical experience—can benefit from an analysis inspired by the existing frameworks of dynamical systems theory and coordination dynamics. These approaches can offer novel theoretical tools to help music researchers describe a number of central aspects of joint musical experience in greater detail, such as prediction, adaptivity, social cohesion, reciprocity, and reward. While most musicians involved in collective forms of musicking already have some familiarity with these terms and their associated experiences, we currently lack an analytical vocabulary to approach them in a more targeted way. To fill this gap, we adopt insights from these frameworks to suggest that musical participation may be advantageously characterized as an open, non-equilibrium, dynamical system. In particular, we suggest that research informed by dynamical systems theory might stimulate new interdisciplinary scholarship at the crossroads of musicology, psychology, philosophy, and cognitive (neuro)science, pointing toward new understandings of the core features of musical participation.
Highlights
In their many cultural and historical manifestations, musical practices often involve collaborative and participatory behaviors (Small, 1999; Turino, 2008)
We suggest that the complex phenomenon of musical participation should be characterized as an open, non-equilibrium, dynamical system
If it is no longer valid to divide the system as a whole into its individual components so as to manage its complexity, how can we explore the dynamics of joint music making in real life? Taking a coordination dynamics perspective, we advocate a solution that places an understanding of the structuring principles of the behavior of dynamical systems at the root of this endeavor
Summary
In their many cultural and historical manifestations, musical practices often involve collaborative and participatory behaviors (Small, 1999; Turino, 2008). These practices include forms of performance, musical learning and listening, improvisation, and (collaborative) composition that play out in diverse contexts: live concerts, religious ceremonies, recording sessions, DJ mixsets, educational institutions, informal settings, therapeutic environments, and more. Different methodologies and theories have been advanced to cross-classify the dynamics and main properties that characterize musical participation. That a common analytical vocabulary might be useful to help overcome (or, at least, reduce the distances between) the terminological, conceptual, and methodological discontinuities produced by different approaches
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