The enactment of cultural values and taste-making within contemporary classical music
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Business School
Abstract
The research builds on an established and successful interdisciplinary partnership between research organisations from the complementary standpoints of organizational studies and music practice (St Andrews University Management School (PI)), and music 'insiders' (CI) at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS), (including artistic research and policy maker partners). It also builds on a track record of successful funded ESRC research among music festivals on which the PI was Research Fellow (ESRC: RES-331-27-0065) and on audience development research (ESRC: RES-187-24-0014) conducted by the PI with one of the proposed partners, the Red Note Ensemble. The PI's background and approach from organisational studies and creative industries brings fresh perspectives to this field; this combined with the 'music insider' CI based at the RCS whose institutional research and Knowledge Exchange activity is centered on music practice results in an unusual and complementary knowledgebase which we hope will add to the Cultural Values project's framework and may be replicated in other cultural and artistic spheres. With the support of Creative Scotland and its networks we will explore whether these innovative methods are replicable across other cultural sectors and art forms.
We will employ tried and tested innovative methods in case studies of Red Note and Psappha contemporary music ensembles. Red Note is Scotland's contemporary music ensemble and Psappha is Manchester's new music ensemble. There are similarities between the ensembles in the musical styles but the audience, location, musicians and management teams are all different. This will illustrate that our methods may be replicated and they will produce theoretical and empirical insights that can enhance our understanding intrinsic cultural value.
Our methodological approach acknowledges the complexity of cultural value. Within society there are diverse range of values and meanings associated with these values, especially in relation to cultural value. We propose an innovative way of exploring this complexity, and that is through taste-making. Taste-making is a situated activity that rests on learning and knowing how to appraise specific performances of a practice (Gherardi, 2009). In this way music can be understood by studying the social and organisational practices of its creation, performance and communication, as well as its enjoyment; these are all music practices. Taste shapes and is shaped within difference practices and is refined through negotiation and reflectivity, in order to express aesthetic judgments of it (Gheradi, 2009). For example gaining pleasure from music is a form of attachment socially supported by the respective communities of practice, which have developed vocabularies and specific criteria of taste and value in order to communicate, share and refine the ways in which such practices are enacted. This research will involve exploring such enactments of taste-making among the different communities of music practitioners.
Our methods and outcomes could clearly contribute to a framework, firstly through the development of a vocabulary and concept of taste making from alternative positions, and secondly the methods to be used for assessing the different forms of taste and processes would help to enable an evaluation of value. The approach explores perceptions and reflections of a cultural experience before, during and after the performance, and this may allow us to elucidate how the different practitioners value that cultural experience. This way of looking at experience deliberately does so from different perspectives and draws in different disciplines. There is no singular experience and hence no singular perceived value, therefore a methodological approach that can capture the richness and diversity and that can produce focused insights is needed.
Reference
Gherardi, S (2009) Practice? It's a matter of taste! Management Learning, 40(5): 535-550.
We will employ tried and tested innovative methods in case studies of Red Note and Psappha contemporary music ensembles. Red Note is Scotland's contemporary music ensemble and Psappha is Manchester's new music ensemble. There are similarities between the ensembles in the musical styles but the audience, location, musicians and management teams are all different. This will illustrate that our methods may be replicated and they will produce theoretical and empirical insights that can enhance our understanding intrinsic cultural value.
Our methodological approach acknowledges the complexity of cultural value. Within society there are diverse range of values and meanings associated with these values, especially in relation to cultural value. We propose an innovative way of exploring this complexity, and that is through taste-making. Taste-making is a situated activity that rests on learning and knowing how to appraise specific performances of a practice (Gherardi, 2009). In this way music can be understood by studying the social and organisational practices of its creation, performance and communication, as well as its enjoyment; these are all music practices. Taste shapes and is shaped within difference practices and is refined through negotiation and reflectivity, in order to express aesthetic judgments of it (Gheradi, 2009). For example gaining pleasure from music is a form of attachment socially supported by the respective communities of practice, which have developed vocabularies and specific criteria of taste and value in order to communicate, share and refine the ways in which such practices are enacted. This research will involve exploring such enactments of taste-making among the different communities of music practitioners.
Our methods and outcomes could clearly contribute to a framework, firstly through the development of a vocabulary and concept of taste making from alternative positions, and secondly the methods to be used for assessing the different forms of taste and processes would help to enable an evaluation of value. The approach explores perceptions and reflections of a cultural experience before, during and after the performance, and this may allow us to elucidate how the different practitioners value that cultural experience. This way of looking at experience deliberately does so from different perspectives and draws in different disciplines. There is no singular experience and hence no singular perceived value, therefore a methodological approach that can capture the richness and diversity and that can produce focused insights is needed.
Reference
Gherardi, S (2009) Practice? It's a matter of taste! Management Learning, 40(5): 535-550.
Planned Impact
From the PI, CI and Red Note's previous research experience (ESRC: RES-187-24-0014), we are aware of the impact research findings can have on the development of an ensemble's venue and repertoire strategy. In particular incorporating potential attenders into the sampling has had a social impact by exposing their music experience (You Tube and Contemporary Music examples played as part of the groups) to those outside of their existing audience, and these perceptions and attitudes have also helped Red Note develop its practice. The Red Note research findings and its impact have been presented at the Sound Festival in Aberdeen (2011), within the RCS (2011) and Music Matters Conference in Glasgow (2012).
As well as having an impact on our Research Partners' practices, our methods and outcomes will impact on the practices of our policy partner and its networks. Creative Scotland sees considerable value in our proposed study, and is contributing £2,000 to help disseminate our findings, since it addresses one of the core elements of its mission in opening up the arts to wider, more diverse audiences. Creative Scotland as the national development agency for the arts, and the primary investor in the subsidized arts sector needs to understand as precisely as possible the cultural value of those art forms it funds. As such there is an obvious synergy with the aims and objectives of the AHRC's Cultural Value project as a whole. Specifically, we will set up a project steering group with Creative Scotland so that our methods and outcomes can be communicated across a broad range of cultural sectors and art forms. With the support of Creative Scotland, which is contributing £2,000 to help in the dissemination of our research findings, we will develop a written summary of our methods and outcomes of the Cultural Values project to be disseminated across its networks. We will follow this up with a workshop at Creative Scotland to discuss our methodological approach and its outcomes for the Cultural Values Project in order to see if and how these are replicable and applicable to other cultural sectors and art forms. It is intended that learning from the content and process of the research will be mobilized for capacity building of policy makers, academics and practitioners (for example, through workshops and conferences).
As well as having an impact on our Research Partners' practices, our methods and outcomes will impact on the practices of our policy partner and its networks. Creative Scotland sees considerable value in our proposed study, and is contributing £2,000 to help disseminate our findings, since it addresses one of the core elements of its mission in opening up the arts to wider, more diverse audiences. Creative Scotland as the national development agency for the arts, and the primary investor in the subsidized arts sector needs to understand as precisely as possible the cultural value of those art forms it funds. As such there is an obvious synergy with the aims and objectives of the AHRC's Cultural Value project as a whole. Specifically, we will set up a project steering group with Creative Scotland so that our methods and outcomes can be communicated across a broad range of cultural sectors and art forms. With the support of Creative Scotland, which is contributing £2,000 to help in the dissemination of our research findings, we will develop a written summary of our methods and outcomes of the Cultural Values project to be disseminated across its networks. We will follow this up with a workshop at Creative Scotland to discuss our methodological approach and its outcomes for the Cultural Values Project in order to see if and how these are replicable and applicable to other cultural sectors and art forms. It is intended that learning from the content and process of the research will be mobilized for capacity building of policy makers, academics and practitioners (for example, through workshops and conferences).
People |
ORCID iD |
| Charlotte Gilmore (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Gilmore C.
(2019)
QUAL[itative]: the art of research insights
Gilmore, C
"Two stoats and a ferret...": taste-making in contemporary classical music.
in European Journal of Marketing
Gilmore, C.
(2016)
Creating a place to play:Cultural entrepreneurship in the contemporary arts
| Description | This research tackled a case study at the 'hard end' of cultural value, that of contemporary classical music performance. The study took an innovative approach in order to contribute to the wider Cultural Value project. The research question was: how are cultural values and taste making enacted in a contemporary music setting, and what are the consequences of that for practice. The study explored taste making among music practitioners within the empirical setting of a contemporary music performance. These practitioners will be musicians, creative directors/managers as 'insiders' of the practice and also actual and potential audience members (firstly those who attend classical music performances but have never attended a contemporary classical performance and secondly those who have never attended a contemporary or classical music performance but who have an interest in arts and music), as 'outsiders' of the practice. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, which included management theory and practice (PI), and music and artistic community 'insiders' (including Professors of Music at the University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, in addition to the wider contemporary arts community and policy partners). These innovative methods contribute to case studies on cultural value, and with the support of Creative Scotland, with whom a research steering group. Two workshops, one with the music community to develop the findings, and the other with the wider contemporary arts community, to disseminate the research findings, the research investigated how the methods could be replicated to produce theoretical and empirical insights that can enhance the understanding of intrinsic value across other cultural settings. Above all else the artistic directors and musicians valued the challenge of playing contemporary classical music, its musical and intellectual challenge. They also talked about valuing the soundscape and texture of the music, of being able to work with living composers and of being the first to play a piece of music. While valuing the music they noted that the music was a "hard sell", and of not being sure why audiences came to their ensembles' concerts. The artistic directors considered that this was because as a genre it is at the "high end" of the artistic spectrum, and given this economic considerations were ancillary to artistic content; central to a good performance was how "good the playing was?" Venues could play an important part in attracting new audiences to contemporary classical music. In terms of understanding audiences the venues around which the research was based attracted a loyal and dedicated following. As such one of the venue artistic directors noted, audiences that would not naturally attend a Red Note or Psappha performance would be exposed to them if they go to those venues for a drink or something to eat, because they "want to be known for going to that venueand so there is that sort of identity thing": "We want to be a place where people hang out and socialise, alongside the artthe longer those two things are alongside each otherpeople may look at something they might have previously considered." The venue artistic directors acknowledged venue contemporary classical music was a "hard sell" when asked why they programmed this genre of music, they posed themselves questions: "of how we should be making music now and what that means?" "what the relationship between the performance and the audience is"; and "what do we get out of it on the most fundamental level: a significant performance for the performers and audience alike and one that feels contemporary and relevant now". Identity was also an issue acknowledged by audiences in terms of attending or not attending classical or contemporary classical concerts. There was a sense among non attenders and first time attenders (Pssapha) that they would be out of place going to such a concert; "not my crowd of people" and "I think there is a stigma with certain types of concerts. In part this was because there was a feeling that they needed to be knowledgeable both in terms of the music and concert etiquette i.e. knowing when to clap and knowing what to wear, before attending a classical concert, not least a contemporary classical concerts, a genre of which their was little or no awareness. Hence there is value in arts venues, attracting potential audiences by constructing a distinct identity based around the arts and which also provides areas to socialise within the artistic spaces. The challenge valued by the artistic directors and musicians was also reflected in the attenders and non-attenders values but in different ways. The attenders, as 'experimenters', enjoyed and sought out the challenge of new pieces of music across a range of genres. In contrast non-attenders did not seek a challenge when listening to music, indeed they valued music, which was familiar, which brought back memories and different emotions. Non-attenders, who had more conservative tastes than attenders, valued the celebrity artist to play their 'favorite hits' as opposed to exploring different genres of music. Non-attenders were either not aware of contemporary classical music as a genre, or their perception of it was of young musicians such as Vanessa Mae playing classical instruments. There were similarities in the values gained from music (in general) amongst non-attenders and attenders, a lot of which were on an internal level provoking memories and emotions. In addition both audiences found music to match their moods and activities such as housework or exercising. They also talked about it as being self-therapeutic, of allowing them to express themselves and as a form of escapism. However while non-attenders sought the comfort of the familiar i.e. favourite hits, attenders liked the dissonance and challenge, as well as the beauty of contemporary classical music. Through this research, and the two workshops undertaken for this study, I have developed my national network within the policymaking and cultural / creative industries: As apart of this study two workshops were held. The first workshop which took place in March amongst 20 music specialists - both as academics and practitioners - for example Red Note's Chief Executive and co-Artistic Director, Matt Brennan and Adam Behr, holders of another Cultural Value research project, Chris Cusak, musician and promoter, Ian Smith, head of the music portfolio at Creative Scotland and Professor Nic Beech, Vice Principal of the University of Dundee. The aim of the workshop, which was held in conjunction with and took place at Creative Scotland in Edinburgh, was to discuss and develop the findings of this study. The second workshop took place in April at the Business School of the University of Edinburgh. Over 20 participants from Creative Scotland, arts organisations, musicians and academics participated in the workshop. The aim of the workshop was to disemminate the research findings among the contemporary arts community in Scotland. Latterly, Creative Scotland have been particularly supportive of the research, and lent their support to a Knowledge Exchange and Impact Grant (funded by the University of Edinburgh) which was successful, working with the Red Note Ensemble again. In addition the findings from this study have formed the basis of two conference papers (EGOS, 2015 and Working in Music: the Musicians' Union, musical labour and employment, 2016), a journal paper for Organisational Studies SI which is currently in development (deadline November, 2015). The findings from this study have also been the basis of two guest speaker slots, Scottish Cultural Evidence Network seminar, March 2014 (Glasgow) and RMA Study Day: Listening to the Listener: Contemporary Perceptions of Classical Music (University of Sheffield). |
| Sectors | Creative Economy,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Description | The findings have been used in a number of different ways: The findings have been used by Psappha and Red Note contemporary classical music ensembles in the strategy development particularly in relation to: audience development, engagement projects with non attenders, for example school and community work; repertoire choices; and venue selection. In addition the Artistic Director has used the study's findings in successful funding bids. The PI has used the methods and findings to successfully engage and inform practitioners within the cultural and creative industries through the project's workshops, project publications and invited talks. This engagement has also broadened and established the PI's academic, practitioner and policy maker network within this sector. Through building on this activity and research the PI has established herself as a specialist in the cultural and creative industries, and this contributed to her being nominated and accepted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Scotland. The findings are now apart of the PI's large and broad body of research data on audience development, taste making, and the artistic and creative practices in the contemporary arts. This data has been gathered from numerous subsequent research studies using the same methodological approach as the AHRC study. This data has been disseminated among practitioner audiences, and is currently being used for a top tier journal paper exploring entrepreneurship within the contemporary arts. The innovative methods used within this study have also been developed and built upon by the PI within her most recent research study: An impact and capacity building study of audience development within contemporary arts in Scotland (funded by the University of Edinburgh). The findings of this study have been used for two conference papers (EGOS and Working in Music: the Musicians' Union, musical labour and employment), two seminar talks (sCene and the RMA Study day, University of Sheffield). The findings are also being used currently for a submission to an Organisational Studies Special Issue paper, and will be used for future top tier papers. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2014 |
| Sector | Creative Economy,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural |
| Description | College of Humanities and Social Science: Challenge Investment Fund |
| Amount | £7,473 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | Islington Mill |
| Organisation | University of Edinburgh |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2014 |
| End | 03/2015 |
| Description | College of Humanities and Social Sciences KE and Impact Grant |
| Amount | £2,863 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | Red Note |
| Organisation | University of Edinburgh |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2015 |
| End | 06/2016 |
| Description | Research Grant, Follow-on Funding Impact & Eng |
| Amount | £90,755 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | AH/P013201/1 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2017 |
| End | 07/2018 |
| Description | Creative Scotland |
| Organisation | Creative Scotland |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | The PI and CI used their existing contacts and networks with current Senior Officers from Creative Scotland (Head of Research and Knowledge Exchange, and the Director of Creative Industries), as well as the wealth of experience brought to the project by two member of this project's Steering Group who are former Heads of Music at Creative Scotland. The project was beneficial to both parties and the QUAL project has created a free web based research resource that can be used by Creative Scotland's clients. |
| Collaborator Contribution | As noted above the Steering group for the QUAL project included one serving senior officer from Creative Scotland and two former Heads of Music who are extremely well connected into the arts scene. Their input included industry/ funder insider knowledge and networking which are crucial in the cultural and creative industries. In kind support of our Steering Group members in terms of their in kind support and time, and Creative Scotland's research team assisted with QUAL's Resource Section. |
| Impact | Head of Research and Knowledge Exchange sat on the steering committee, of this AHRC Cultural Value project, and on my new AHRC Creative Economy Follow on Funding project. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Royal Musical Association Study Day: Listening to the Listener: contemporary Perceptions of Classical Music |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Delivering a paper on perceptions of contemporary classical music |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | sCene Research Seminar: Cultural Value: How do you measure the value of a cultural experience? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | A presentation of the preliminary findings of the cultural values project http://vimeo.com/90104349 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0044/00447255.pdf |