This article explores the unique nature of collaboration in musical ensembles, exploring the research and suggesting how conductors could better support young musicians in developing ensemble skills.
Introduction I must confess that I zone out with unparalleled rapidity when I hear people scramble to justify the study of music, advocating it as a vehicle for teaching teamwork, citing the importance of how it develops collaboration, or even detailing how it improves wellbeing. In my opinion this misses the point just as much as the banal quotes extolling the virtues of music that popularly adorn fridge magnets or inundate Instagram, routinely informing us, amongst other things, that music is a universal language. And music might very well say something, but I would agree with Dr Martin Fautley in his assertion that “music isn’t a language as it lacks lexical indexation. You can’t say “can I have a cheese sandwich” in music!”. Whilst we often use comparison to help deepen our understanding of the world, I am puzzled by the need to defend the study of an art form which is fundamental to so many cultures by promoting the additional skills it might provide. I would assert that to comprehend the uniqueness of studying any discipline we must develop our understanding of how it is taught, how we learn and the skills that underpin these activities. In challenging the popular culture of the insta-academics, it therefore seemed expedient to unpick one of the key aspects of music-making, debunking the social media misrepresentations and beginning to understand what the research says. To do so, I will explore how teamwork in music is distinct from other disciplines, how musicians collaborate in ensembles, and what this means for music educators. This is not teamwork as a byproduct, but a particular kind of collaboration that fuels the creation of music.
Following the leader Teamwork and leadership in all aspects of life are intrinsically linked. In the case of conducted ensembles, the best example being the orchestra, one could be forgiven for assuming that the extent of teamwork is somewhat limited with the conductor wielding his baton with wizard-like control over musicians. Indeed, there may be a certain alchemy to what happens in the orchestra, with the role of the conductor being historically seen as that of the “hero’s hero” (Lebrecht 3), a mystical figurehead who appears to the audience as “the visible centre of attention, the mediator of their relationships with one another and the musical works” (Small 80). This preconception of the conductor as the divine conduit through which all musical greatness flows has been refuted, with famed pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim explaining “if you are at one with the orchestra, and know that they do not just follow you blindly but join you, then each concert is emphasised differently” (89). It follows that in ‘being at one’ with the orchestra the process of music-making is a shared endeavour in which musicians exercise a degree of agency.
Working in concert Accepting that orchestral musicians do not react to conductors with Pavlovian predictability we can begin to understand that group music-making relies on shared understanding, and therefore “music can only be grasped properly as a social practice” (Clayton, Herbert & Middleton 11). Kartomi argues that intersubjectivity creates a “socio-cognitive framework for approaching agreement that transcends the limits of the individual” (202). In developing this concept, we could say that musicians are not reacting to each other, but with each other in what has been described as synchronic collaboration (Barrett). Other academics have referred to the uniqueness of this collaboration as simultaneous task interdependence (Boerner, Kraus & Gerber) where musicians respond concurrently to the music, to the conductor, and to each other. This act of collaboration asserts that musicians are in plural leadership, each subtly exercising their agency to ensure that the output is enhanced, whilst understanding and acknowledging the distinctive skills of each player (Bathurst & Ladkin). Recognising that musicians are skilled participants in an ensemble who can exercise agency, the idea of collaboration can be extended to consider how they jointly drive innovation through what Sawyer has labeled “group genius” (2007). Described by other scholars as collaborative creativity or collective virtuosity this concept has caught the attention of researchers who have sought to unpick how the most successful ensembles function and how they harness the “power of collective consciousness” (Gonski 57). In a study involving the London Symphony Orchestra, Dobson and Gaunt described this as ‘radar’ with some of the musicians more whimsically referring to this phenomenon as having musical ‘antennae’.
Growing your antennae As educators, we must ask ourselves how we can grow ‘antennae’ in the young musicians in our care. It would seem cavalier to assume that all musicians randomly attain their antennae at an undetermined point in their development, or that it is a thing of legend which is revealed to the most talented or enlightened. Johansson purports that what musicians create is part of an inner dialogue underpinned by the creative interactions of musical education, and “the ability to be creative is a function of a lived experience and always related to the need for social adaption” (26). Through the way educators interact with their ensembles they have the power to ensure that what they teach their students is focused on helping develop antennae. To do this we might consider some of the following areas:
Teaching of musical signifiers It was found that communication between musicians takes many forms outside of the auditory, and that visual cues are important musical signifiers in learning (Kenny). This means that in leading an ensemble we not only have to explain how the gestures of conducting have specific meaning, but how each player’s physicality communicates something to fellow musicians. This could be as simple as ensuring the synchronisation of an entry within the trumpet section or understanding which musicians within the ensemble have the responsibility for leading each section.
Leadership through apprenticeship Traditionally orchestras are organised into sections, with each section having a leader or principal, and in student ensembles it would be usual for the principal of a section to be the most advanced player. Abrahams & Abrahams (540) explain that in student ensembles members become “apprentices to the conductor”. Conflating these assertions, we have two distinct levels of leadership which could been seen as a multi-layered apprenticeship model. This becomes impactful where educators empower students to exercise agency in mentoring their peers. This not only mimics the structure of a professional ensemble but develops the skills of the mentees and the leadership capabilities of mentors.
Positioning the ensemble as a community We have already discussed music as a social practice and how this links to effective collaboration, who exist in what Kenny calls a community of musical practice. Here we consider the shared domain of the group and how the community is important in establishing the ‘social fabric of learning’. Within our school ensembles we must nurture the idea of shared goals, joint endeavour and how we as a community negotiate meaning through these strands.
Conclusion Research on collaboration within musical ensembles provides insights which are valuable in helping us consider how we manage group music-making, and how through developing certain skills we can enhance the cohesion of our groups and attain a higher quality of performance. In a world which seems to prefer the distillation of ideas and concepts into bite-sized slogans, I believe we must strive to understand nuances and move beyond a surface-level appraisal of what music is, why we study it, and what it gives our students and our societies. In doing so the education we provide becomes more targeted, more reflexive, and more effective. Whilst we embrace the living, laughing and loveliness of life, or struggle to order a musical sandwich, it is my sincere hope that this short journey into musical collaboration has highlighted the uniqueness of how musicians work together and the richness of the research which has helped us understand their endeavours.
Reference List
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Gonski, R. “Symphonic Mind: States of Consciousness in Orchestral Performance.” Contemporary Music Review, vol. 14, nos. 3-4, 1996, 55-64. doi:10.1080/07494469600640281.
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Kartomi, M. “Concepts, Terminology, and Methodology in Music Performativity Research.” Musicology Australia, vol. 36, no. 2, 2014, 189-208. doi:10.1080/08145857.2014.958268.
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Marco Zambonini is the Vice Principal Director of Studies at NLCS Dubai, a position he has held for six years. He is particularly interested in how educational research shapes our practice, and the collaborative nature of learning. This led him to complete an MPhil in Educational Leadership and School Improvement at the University of Cambridge for which he was awarded a distinction. Acknowledging his commitment to teacher-research, Marco was made a Founding Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching.
A graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Marco spent much of his career teaching music. He was the founder of the Arabian Youth Orchestra which was the premier ensemble for aspiring young musicians in the region, and in 2017 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, in recognition of his work with this ensemble.
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