Abstract:
This thesis investigates the career realities of musicians through which
their sense of passion for music—or musical calling—is manifested.
Despite often making a precarious living and earning a below-average
income, many musicians remain passionate and hold a strong belief in
what they do. Many persevere and forge a boundaryless/protean
/portfolio career that balances their artistic and material needs. Literature
from social science points to a calling as a consuming and meaningful
passion or purpose in life, and this is in evidence in this thesis.
Drawing on the separate fields of calling research and career
development theories, this thesis offers a new conceptual framing to
examine how musicians see what they do and why they continue to do
it. In this research, nine classical, jazz and rock musicians in their early to
mid-career were interviewed. Data was gathered through semistructured
individual interviews and examined through Interpretative
Phenomenological Analysis. Participant findings suggest that a musical
calling can originate from aesthetic experience, social relationships and
religious beliefs. It also forms over time through environmental and
individual factors. Findings also suggest that the calling experience has
characteristics such as intensity, perpetuity, multiplicity and mutability.
Musicians also experience careers in ways that exhibit sustainability
awareness, self-agency and career adaptability. Ideas such as
professionality in music, intra- and extra-disciplinary world views,
dichotomous views of career are broached. Finally, the thesis suggests
ways to rethink musical calling and career so that both the ‘passion and
bread’ over a lifetime can be sustained.