Exploring interaction in exolingual music workshops: a case study
Project responsible: Daniela Veronesi
Project duration: July 2011-December 2013


Project description

In recent decades, music making as a social practice has drawn specific interest in scholarly research, in that ethnomusicologists, sociologists, linguistic anthropologists and conversation analysts have started to explore the multimodal and collective nature of music practices and the role played by verbal communication and language use in the organization of music action and in the construction of musicians’ professional identity.
 
The project aims at advancing this body of research by examining interaction in settings characterized by linguistic asymmetries among participants – an exolingual situation which, given the growing internationalization of music making, is becoming more and more common in ensembles’ composition and educational activities, and which raises a number of issues still unexplored in this emerging field of study.
How do musicians, for instance, treat linguistic, cultural (and musical) diversity in such encounters? To what extent are linguistic resources – given the absence of an official interpreter - made locally available and relevant for the organization of interaction? How does language use (lingua franca, code-switching, occasional translation) intersect with the intrinsic multimodal nature of music making in the accomplishment of different types of participation and courses of action?
The study, which adopts a Conversation Analysis approach complemented by ethnographic fieldwork, addresses such questions by focusing on music educational activities and examining a series of audio- and videotaped ensemble music workshops held in Italy between 2008 and 2010 by an Anglophone conductor/composer from the U.S. to groups of Italian music students and semi-professional musicians as well as to mixed groups of professional musicians from Italy and the U.S.
Specific attention will be devoted to the description of the event format and the alternation between music making and discourse about such making - typical of music educational activities -, thereby looking at the semiotic resources drawn upon by participants in reaching agreement on musicality and music action.
The management of linguistic diversity and the role played by occasional, improvised translation in ensuring understanding and participation will be then analysed, examining how the multilingual dimension of the event is made relevant and addressed by participants. A further issue under examination will be participants’ use of English or Italian as a second language, so as to explore the notion of “language competence” as treated by social actors, and so as to see insofar the event exolingual configuration can constitute an advantage rather than an obstacle in reaching the workshops goals.
Finally, asymmetries in music knowledge among participants (music students vs. with professional musicians) will be taken into account by looking at how teaching methodologies can vary according to participants’ music expertise and at how social actors negotiate and construct their individual and collective identity as musicians, as students and as a cohesive group against the background of the collaborative and collective nature of music making.


Project-related  presentations

July, 8, 2011, Manchester University, Manchester
Paper presentation "Negotiating meaning, negotiating action: semiotic resources in exolingual music workshops" at International Pragmatics Conference 2011, within Panel "Exploring interaction and discourse in music settings" (co-organized with Sergio Pasquandrea)  

October 27, 2011, Università degli Studi di Roma III, Roma
Paper presentation "L'interazione tra musicisti in contesto pedagogico esolingue: sequenze di traduzione, formati partecipativi e azione", at Colloque international Le linguiste et l'anthropologue: Modèles et expériences d'écriture, within Panel "Approches interactionnelles de la traduction comme pratique située" (organized by Lorenza Mondada)  

December 10, 2011, Columbia Linguistics Society, Columbia University, New York City
Invited talk "Analysing interaction in music settings: the case of exolingual music workshops"


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