Abstract:
The musician's skill falls under the category of practical knowledge or "know-how", which comes in a number of species. In some cases, one aims at the result directly and cannot bring to consciousness the steps or calculations involved in bringing it off. In others, the target action can be reduced to a sequence or process that can be retrieved by consciousness even if it is not before the mind as the action is performed. Where does the boundary between these two kinds of the musician's "know-how" fall and how much of what the musician does can be explained and analysed in terms of steps, algorithms, rules, and the like? I attempt to develop and clarify these issues. In addition, I suggest that our understanding of musicianship would benefit from a sociological, not solely a psychological, perspective, as well as from comparison with the values and practices of music making in other cultures and contexts. I discuss forms of performance with purposes and constraints unlike those for normal live performance, such as studio recordings that simulate live performances, studio recordings that use technology to create a sound environment that transcends many of the limitations of live music making, and new modes of live performance that abandon traditional instruments in favour of working directly with and on the products of modern sound technology.