Ritual perspectives: an investigation into the epistemology of performance

© 2010 Belinda Jane WoodsThis dissertation takes the form of an inter-subjective investigation into the ritual of performance, considering its function in terms of community engagement and its place in contemporary society. Ritual is placed in a secular context in which music is performed through the development of individual artistic expression, yet presented in a way that engages the audience as active participants. In this way audience and performer are united in experiencing the affect of music upon the emotions and the mind. The views of art theorists, historians and critics, anthropologists, musicologists and arts practitioners, are held in the light of the author’s creative output through which a range of questions emerge regarding the cultivation of artistic identity, the artist’s role in the refinement of cultural expression, the relevance of live performance in the digital age, the transformational qualities of artistic practice upon the social and intellectual evolution of humanity, and the value of new musical language. Chapter One examines the relationship between audience and musician from a performer’s perspective, in relation to Milton Babbitt’s article, Who Cares if You Listen? The connection between music performance and ritual practice and the possibility that artistic expression can actively engage audience receptivity is discussed in Chapter Two. Chapter Three contemplates the philosophical stance of the Art for Art’s Sake movement, that art exists in its own right without reference to the emotive experiences of humanity. Topics such as formal structure, the absence or presence of ethical content, the concept of aesthetic emotion and self objectivity, are examined alongside discussions of perception and consciousness. Chapter Four argues that performance, as ritual ceremony, becomes a porous boundary between lived and dream-like experience, through which the audience may pass to experience art on a profound level. The shared gesture of performer and audience becomes a life-enriching act that in turn nourishes all of society