Musicking: Music as an Action

In his article "Musicking: A Ritual in Social Space," Christopher Small contends that music is more than just a sheet of paper with lines and markings. Rather, music is an act and an expression that the composer, the performers, and the audience takes part in creating. Composing, singing, playing instruments, dancing, and listening are all components of partaking in a musical experience. Small coins the verb "musicking" to not only express this idea of music as an act but to encompass the relationships of all involved in the act.

I find this perspective fascinating. It draws a deeper scope to music that is already wide, beautiful, and complicated. A musical composition contains markings that direct the performer to play the piece the way the composer envisioned it to be played, leaving very little wiggle room. Some annotations go a step further by instructing the exact position of the performer and instrument. Yet, no live performance will ever be exactly the same as another. Every performer in an orchestra could be playing a piece of music exactly how it was written, but the performance will always be affected by each individual performer (including the conductor) and his/her attitude, as well as the attitudes of the audience toward the performance. A person's mood and personality, the situation, and who the person is will all contribute to how a piece of music will affect the person.

Similar to certain smells or tastes, a piece of music can evoke memories in people. For instance, when I listen to Shania Twain's "Man, I Feel like a Woman," I am instantly reminded of the many times when my older sister would babysit me and my younger sister. We would order from Godfather's Pizza, go into my mother's closet and put on different articles of clothing, grab my dad's Polaroid camera, and dance around to that song, singing at the top of our lungs. Going back to Small's idea of "musicking" involving relationships, music has a unique way of uniting people. When I open a hymnal in church, I get this wonderful feeling of community, expanding far beyond the walls of the building and reaching generations and generations of people who have stood in my place and sung those same songs.