Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Researching musical participation
Dr Stephanie PittsSenior Lecturer, Department of Music
I’m interested in musical participation: how people become involved in music-making, and what it means to them.
2
University music students in performance
My research uses a range of methods to investigate people’s experiences of musical participation and its impact on their lives
•Questionnaires•Interviews •Observation•Diaries
I’ve found that making music is valuable to people for a range of reasons:
As a source of confirmation and confidence
As a chance to acquire or develop skills
18/04/23 © The University of Sheffield
6
As an opportunity to perform with others
For social interaction and friendships
As a way of enhancing everyday life
As a way of escaping from everyday life
As a source of spiritual fulfilment
Rehearsing
Performing
I’m also interested in the audience experience: who attends concerts and why?
18/04/23 © The University of Sheffield
9
As an audience gathers for a chamber music concert,their motivations for being there might be assumed to be largely musical: a desire to hear a particular repertory or certain performers, to affirm or challenge existing musical tastes, and to critique, enjoy, or maybe learn from the interpretation of familiar or previously unheard music.
18/04/23 © The University of Sheffield
10
Some listeners will arrive alone, sitting apparently engrossed in reading their programmes as they wait for the concert to start - temperament and habit dictating whether they bring a book to avoid the need to meet strangers, or otherwise choose to engage in some people-watching or to strike up a conversation with a fellow listener.
18/04/23 © The University of Sheffield
11
Other audience members arrive with friends, or greet acquaintances across the auditorium, and find their allocated seat or select one that places them a comfortable distance from the performers, preferably with a good view, some legroom, and easy access to the area used for interval refreshments.
18/04/23 © The University of Sheffield
12
And so the musical reasons for attending are intertwined with personal and social considerations: for different people in the concert hall this might be a sociable night out, a chance to escape from worldly pressures, an evening laden with obligation or sense of duty, or an impulsive decision to fill a few hours in which the television schedules looked unappealing.
Stephanie Pitts and Christopher Spencer, Loyalty and longevity in audience listening: investigating experiences of attendance at a chamber music festival (Music and
Letters, 2007)
I’ve collaborated on studies with audiences for classical music and jazz...
...with funding from the British Academy, and the Universities of Leeds and Sheffield
Classical and jazz audiences are both influenced by concert venues, preferring familiar, intimate spaces in which they can feel fully involved in the performance.
External view of The Lot, Grassmarket – a jazz venue in
Edinburgh
There’s a concern that audiences for jazz and classical music tend to be over-55, affluent, white, and professional or retired
How old are you?Over 7666-7556-6546-5536-4526-3518-25Under 17
Count
300
200
100
0
Audience ages at the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival, 2007
How can live music be made appealing to a more diverse audience?
Our work is being funded by a £3000 Innovation Voucher from Yorkshire Forward and Business Link
I’m currently working with Music in the Round to bring under-30s audiences to chamber music
.
.
We’re distributing surveys online and at arts and leisure venues in Sheffield, asking about young adults’ leisure habits and attitudes to classical music.
We’ll then run focus groups to investigate first-time attenders’ experiences of Music in the Round
• For further information about any of these projects, please get in touch:
• Dr Stephanie PittsDepartment of MusicUniversity of SheffieldJessop Building S3 7RD
