Communicaton space of amateur chorus and authoritarianism of musical craft

Abstract

This paper delves into structure of an organization, defined as academic musical collective. This is a widespread shape of musical collective with its own peculiar arrangement. Administration model of most such collectives is the same and between other things is characterized by a high degree of control by executive (conductor). Social structure of academic musical collective is overviewed on the methodological grounds of Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory. Significant attention is given to communication space of musical collective. One of key points being presented is that organizational form of musical collective is not accidental, but a logical result of conditions of musical craft in modern society. As evidence for that argument both social and physical (namely, acoustic) phenomena which lead to invention, normalization and reproduction of such form of musical collective are presented. Pros of interdisciplinary approach to sociological study of music are demonstrated, exampled by objective conditions of existence of musicians and influence of those conditions on the arrangement of musical collectives. Sociological study of music can lead to great insights about machinery of musical community, practices of production and consumption of musical culture, but they always risk being drawn into radical social constructionism. Intelligent supplementation of social theory with relevant knowledge from other disciplines studying music, for example, acoustics, can contribute to avoiding that problem and provide us with a better-defined picture. It is especially true in case of music as it can greatly influence consciousness and mental state of a person. This effect is irreducible to simple perception of meanings, arbitrarily attached towards musical works. The paper suggests strategy, which would allow avoiding both radical social constructionism and physical determinism.