Abstract

This thesis offers an analysis of the concept of musical performance designed to emphasize the central role of performance in music generally. Musical performance is placed at the hub of a complex of relations linking musicians, musical works, practice traditions, and listeners. In developing the model, I consider various concepts relevant to music-making such as sound and silence, intention, the constraints imposed by musical works, and the obligations of the player to the listener. An extended discussion of skill links music-making with the traditional crafts. The paradigm of performance developed is that of an agent-centered primary physical craft which deploys specific means and skills to achieve specified ends for the benefit of the listener. These means and skills occur within and are regulated by cohesive performance communities which are likened to Guilds. Such musical Guilds not only maintain performance standards but develop and sustain a hierarchy of skill which establishes rank within the musical community from novice to virtuoso. The Guild is inherently conservative and works as if to ensure a relatively constant ratio of highly skilled to player-members of lesser skills. In this century, the critical elements of human skill and agency are threatened by two distinct developments; one from the avant-garde in music and painting and the other from prospects in musical technology. The avant-garde undermines the tradition by introducing fortuity as a prime musical force, as well as directly questioning the value to music of the trained musician. Modern electronic technology at its least controversial makes certain musical tasks vastly easier to accomplish with greatly reduced skill. More contentiously, the technology promises the replacement of the performing artist altogether. The last three chapters explore these putative threats and offer a number of arguments to show how they would likely be met from within the conservative traditional model