Christopher Small's Musicking: The Meaning

Whether it’s a music festival, DJ set, or classical concert, these musical experiences outline social experiences in everyday life. In Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening, Christopher Small discusses the different types of appropriate behavior for various concert settings. Specifically, Small describes the classical music experience as a gathering of “middle-class white people” with posh etiquette and an interaction of consumers and producers. Many behaviors I observed at the Taiwan studies lecture series presentation of solo pianist Chen Pi-hsien at the Conrad Preby Music Hall parallels Small’s description of a classical Western concert. While Chen Pi-hsien draws in a multicultural audience by defying the typical with a culture clash between
western and Taiwanese music, the audience demonstrates the cultural separation in society. Although few disruptions aroused from the audience, the general atmosphere of the concert hall was silent and private.
Most people found their own experience in Pi-hsien’s performance by sitting respectfully and careful not to make a single noise. Even though people, including myself, came in groups of friends or family, the classical music setting transformed everyone’s behavior. Small argues that “our silence during the performance is a sign of condition, that we have nothing to contribute our attention to the spectacle that has been arranged for us” (Small 44). We, as the audience, convince ourselves to behave in a more elegant and composed way, creating this permanent expectation of attentive presence for professional classical concerts in the Western culture. Since the majority of the audience at Pi-hsien’s show seem familiar with these standards, the disruptive cell phones, laptops and unwrapping of a cough drop appear more exaggerated and disrespectful. Small would consider this behavior untypical and bizarre for a Western style concert. Thus, a challenge to keep ourselves quiet and patient exposes the particular socially accepted behavior of Small’s “middle-class white people”, posh and
attentive. On the other hand, Pi-hsien’s presents an out of the ordinary blend of traditional western music and Taiwanese music bringing a learning environment and culture shock into the concert hall. The pieces reflected everything she’s learned since leaving her home country, Taiwan, and shared bits of her home to the audience. Likewise, the audience was a mix of groups of Taiwanese folks and groups of western folks. Thus, the emotions either groups experience from her performance and presence are very particular and special. For Pi-hsien, to be Asian in a concert hall and to perform Taiwanese music may gain her critiques of her work who aren’t as knowledgeable on the expression or technical production of Taiwanese music. Since “a sense of national identity was forged within a world dominated by Western ideologies, East Asian countries registered and responded to these influences in their own individual fashion”(Yang 3). In East Meets West in the Concert Hall, Mina Yang argues that history has a big impact on the musical influence of Asian countries by western ideologies. Due to these influences, Pi-hsien’s rare performance of both western and East Asian music creates a cultural exchange of knowledge between not only herself and the audience, but also between one audience member to another with different backgrounds. Although attending the concert for different reasons, the audience observes curiously two very unique cultures from one woman familiar with both. Even though Pi-hsien embodies both western and Taiwanese styles of music and living, the audiences’ behavior and disassociation with one another revealed the large gap that still exists between asian and western perceptions overall. Generally, different styles of music draws in different types of people, and at this concert the seating arrangement demonstrated exactly that. Despite the mix of styles Pi-hsien prepared, there still is separation between the two cultures. For instance, most of audience members seated themselves respectively in their own groups. A group of Taiwanese elders sat closely together towards the front of the stage, and more than twenty seats away sat a group of CAT 2 students also in their own group. Just as the repertoire separates western and Taiwanese music before and after intermission, the audience separates themselves, and likewise, people everyday separate themselves by race and cultural background. Even in a concert hall, we chose to find or bring our community that we’re familiar with instead of intermingling among others. All in all, Small’s critique of a classical concert and social relationships can be seen clearly at the Chen Pi-hsien piano concert. Likewise, the prominent culture clash between the pieces and audience portrays Yang’s argument that western music influenced East Asian music in historical times. Thus, in modern times, there is an undeniable separation between people with different cultural backgrounds. Ultimately, I believe that like the concert’s atmosphere, our intellectual society is full of stereotypes and cultural differences.