- Part of 'A topology of musical encounter' (summary) -
To render the detailed elements that form the a musical identity into a comprehensible framework, I introduce the model of Individualistics. The theory of individualistics thrives on the notion that there exist no more cultural traditions that accurately encompass the musical views of any individual musician in twenty-first century Amsterdam. In fact, every individual musician represents a unique combination of interests, influences and choices, and connects therewith not to one, but to a manifold of possible cultural definitions shared by a certain collective. This personal package of beliefs, experiences, sounds and skills are called individualistics, because they are the cobblestones of one’s unique individual path in music. They form a so to speak DNA-code of the individual musicians view and way of dealing with musical matters.
Regardless of general similarities in style, education or cultural background, every single conversation I engaged in with musicians about this topic showed a unique and highly personal pattern. Therefore each of these conversations is unique and would be interesting to analyze more thoroughly. But instead of focusing on individual cases, to understand the basis logic behind individualistics I should further elaborate the pattern that connects all of them, which provides an insight in the ‘composition’ of the musical consciousness. Recalling conversations, experiences with musicians, and my own composition practice I came to differentiate five different types of individualistics - general, personal, conceptual, material and contextual individualistics.
Every musician has a unique profile made up from these essential cells of ‘musical DNA’, directly connected to his own individualistic culture, based on social surrounding, personal experiences, musical attitude and sometimes pure incidental events. The personal way a musician signifies different influences in relation to one another completes the composition of the personal reality of music. By understanding the dimensions of individualistics we will gain great insight in the large valley that lays in between the two cliffs of cultural traditions and musical identity. Through individualistics we establish a catalog of musical information, and learn the skills how to interpret their significance, by researching the personal connotations that musicians attach to their musical material.
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