Weeks2026
| Weeks2026 | |
|---|---|
| BibType | INCOLLECTION |
| Key | Weeks2026 |
| Author(s) | Peter Weeks |
| Title | Instructedness in collective music-making |
| Editor(s) | Peter Tolmie, Dave Randall, Mark Rouncefield, Andy Crabtree |
| Tag(s) | EMCA, Music, Instructions |
| Publisher | Routledge |
| Year | 2026 |
| Language | English |
| City | Abingdon, Oxon |
| Month | |
| Journal | |
| Volume | |
| Number | |
| Pages | 29–51 |
| URL | Link |
| DOI | 10.4324/9781003358886-3 |
| ISBN | |
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| Howpublished | |
| Book title | Ethnomethodological Studies of Music |
| Chapter | |
Abstract
This chapter explores instructed actions in two cases of collaborative music-making and some of the contingencies of following the various instructions. These two episodes illustrate a contrast between a rehearsal where the conductor gives explicit instructions and a final performance where a missed beat by one of the musicians disrupts the instructed actions of the others. In this case, these others are implicitly instructed to modify their actions to fit in, improvise, and thereby restore the synchrony of the performance. Since music is polythetic, instructiveness is necessarily step-by-step, based on the collective orientation to musical scores, and the just-prior actions of each musician’s playing in relation to those of the others moment-to-moment. Thus, each sound is an implicit cue to next actions in context. This, in turn, depends on previous instructions including those over a series of lessons and rehearsals, and other background understandings. Explicit instructions consist of both verbal descriptions and prescriptions along with sung expressions which imitate selective aspects of the musical performances. Through these episodes, the instructedness and instructiveness of actions are analyzed at various levels in this ethnomethodological exploration.
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