The Hidden Musicians. Ruth Finnegan

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different origins in Milton Keynes, that many of the broad patterns described in later chapters are to be found fairly widely in England – an invisible system structuring and maintaining local music up and down the country.

      2

      Musical worlds in Milton Keynes

      This part gives some account of the differing musics in Milton Keynes in the early 1980s. It is difficult to know how to present the inevitably overlapping and heterogeneous material of so complex a study as that of the musical activities of a whole town. I finally decided to begin with a plain description of the main ‘musical worlds’ into which local music-making seemed broadly to be divided (in part 2) and then (in part 3) consider some of the contrasts and comparisons between them before going on to the further analysis in parts 4 and 5.

      The idea of a musical ‘world’ partly arises from local participants’ own descriptions. Brass band involvement was ‘a world on its own’, and classical art music seen as a ‘quite different world’ from that of rock music. The term has also been used by anthropologists and others to refer to people’s ‘world view’ or to different ‘social worlds’, emphasising the differing and complex cultures of ideas and practice within which people variously live.1

      This has been taken further in Howard Becker’s illuminating study of ‘art worlds’ (1982). Since the concept of musical ‘worlds’ has structured my presentation in this part, it is worth quoting Becker’s exposition:

      Art worlds consist of all the people whose activities are necessary to the production of the characteristic works which that world, and perhaps others as well, define as art. Members of art worlds coordinate the activities by which work is produced by referring to a body of conventional understandings embodied in common practice and in frequently used artifacts …

      The interaction of all the involved parties produces a shared sense of the worth of what they collectively produce. Their mutual appreciation of the conventions they share, and the support they mutually afford one another, convince them that what they are doing is worth doing. If they act under the definition of “art”, their interaction convinces them that what they produce are valid works of art. (Becker 1982, pp. 34, 39)

      The ‘musical worlds’ of Milton Keynes were instances of such ‘art worlds’.2 They were distinguishable not just by their differing musical styles but also by other social conventions: in the people who took part, their values, their shared understandings and practices, modes of production and distribution, and the social organisation of their collective musical activities.

      Part 2 therefore presents in turn some description of the various musical worlds of classical, brass band, folk, musical theatre, jazz, country and western, and rock or pop music which could with varying degrees of distinctiveness be found in Milton Keynes. Each is treated here as valid in itself, presented at least in part from the viewpoint of its participants. This approach is necessary for understanding the conventions in these differing worlds in their own terms, but it is also one that, surprisingly, cannot be taken for granted. ‘Music’ tends to be at once a word of approval and one that means different things to different people; what one group unambiguously define as ‘music’ may be rejected by others as not ‘really’ music, or as ‘mere noise’ or ‘childish’ or ‘just a boring series of notes’. It thus takes some detachment as well as self-education to envisage music right across the spectrum from ‘pop’ to ‘classical’ as equally valid, for this means refusing to accept any one set of assumptions about the ‘true’ nature of music and instead exploring each ‘world’ as of equal authenticity with others.

      4

      The classical music world at the local level

      Classical or ‘serious’ music is what many readers will first think of when music is mentioned. For its participants this is the world of music, the type of music which in its repertoire, teachers, and performance is music par excellence, validated through state and church patronage and by its acceptance as part of the artistic heritage of European Christian civilisation. As one of the central cultural traditions of our society perhaps it seems too familiar to need explication. But one aspect that is often overlooked is the role of the amateur musicians and their local activities. This chapter describes some of the local practices and practitioners within classical music, the way these relate to the wider classical model, and the essential contribution they make to the continuance of classical music as a performed art form.1

      The local activities and groups within this classical music world took various forms. There were the occasional visits of famous professional orchestras and soloists to give performances in one or other of the local halls, and concerts by local orchestras and choirs with visiting professional soloists. Local pupils from time to time went on to professional music training at one of the specialist music colleges outside the area after initial instruction by local teachers. But these more spectacular events were only part of the picture, for there were also the ‘lesser’ local activities that on a day-to-day basis both reflected the ideal classical model and, ultimately, enabled its realisation in practice.

      School music was one important element. In addition to formal music lessons, children’s ensembles played regularly outside lessons, and schools put on concerts for parents and friends (described further in chapter 15). The Buckinghamshire Education Authority also ran two music centres (one in Bletchley – the North Bucks Music Centre – and one at the Stantonbury Education Campus) which organized peripatetic instrumental teachers for local schools and ‘Junior Music Schools’ on Saturday mornings where local children played in groups or gave regular termly concerts (see figure 8). Like the schools, these centres were predominantly in the classical (and to a lesser extent brass) tradition, and also encouraged classical musical activity by teaching and by providing rehearsal facilities and other services for classical groups. They formed one local nucleus of musicians, many also functioning as private teachers or members of local orchestras, choirs and other ensembles.

      Figure 8 The North Bucks Youth Orchestra (one of the many junior orchestras at the North Bucks Music Centre) perform Swan Lake at their termly concert accompanied by local dancers

      There were also the many private music teachers and their pupils. They too played a part not just in socialisation into music but in the actual music-making of the locality, hundreds of hours of playing every week. There were scores of instrumental and singing teachers with varying qualifications, above all in piano teaching, and each year about a thousand practical music examinations for the national examining schools were held in local centres – some indication of the extent of classical music. Private music teaching, especially to children, was a flourishing industry with pupils of varying levels of proficiency playing musical instruments not only to their teachers but also at school or church, in local groups and in the home.

      The churches were another context for the local enactment of classical music. Many had their own choirs, together with one or more organists who played from the recognised classical repertoire on church occasions, including the life-cycle ceremonies so often held in church – christenings, weddings, funerals. It was thus through the churches as much as through formal concert halls that many people came to appreciate

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