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This Is Music Final Essay

As discussed in This is Music during Semester 1, the relationship between audience and
performer is one that sparks discourse and discussion throughout the musical community. This is
demonstrated through the vastly different opinions held through the three articles studied in this
thesis, written a mere 20 years apart from each other. Ede and Lunsford’s article, Audience
Addressed/Audience Invoked: The Role of Audience in Composition Theory and
Pedagogy1 establishes the intricacy and the fragile balance for a composer when it comes to their
consideration of the audience that will eventually listen to their work. Auslander’s article,
Performance Analysis and Popular Music: A Manifesto2, shortens the space between the idea of
relationship and focuses it on the musician/audience relationship intricately attempting to justify
its placement in the genre of performance art. Similarly, Pitts’ article What Makes An Audience?
Investigating the Roles and Experiences of Listeners at a Chamber Music Festival3 examines that
the involvement of the audience does not solely benefit the performer however has great influence
on the audience and their level of enjoyment through the concert. Analysing these discussions
has influenced how I, as a performer, approach these performances, encouraging me to invite the
audience into my performance through body language. moreover, it affects how I approach
performances as an audience member, enticing me to attend preconcert talks when available and
demonstrate how I can not just enjoy concerts more however similarly attesting how I can get
more out of a performance and how I can be more receptive as an audience member, making the
communication line between the audience and the performer stronger. Therefore, I believe that
there is much to be learnt in the appreciation of the articles being discussed through this essay,
as a believe there is still much more room for development in the realm of performance and I
believe that this study makes it easier for people that struggle with nerves surrounding
performances as it humanises the experience and makes it less intimidating for all involved.

Through their article, Ede and Lunsford examine the intricacy of the composer/audience
relationship, aiming to find the ideal balance for composers when composing their pieces,
debating whether the audience should be taken into account. The article addresses the two main
models in compositional method in regards to the role of the audience; audience addressed and
audience invoked. The leaders in the field for audience addressed, Fred Pfister and Joanne Petrik,
favour the concept of the audience as addressed by encouraging the students to imagine their
audience in their practice and creating the metaphor of performers as authors and implying that
such as an author needs to consider their readers when writing a work, the performer must
acknowledge their audience. This train of thought is heavily influenced by audience analysis in
speech communication and through the appreciation of research of the composing process and
the psychology behind it. Contrastingly, audience invoked is a model which outlines the audience
as a “created fiction”4. Those that follow this model, led by Ong, acknowledge the presence of the
audience and respect that they exist, however they dissent the model that the composers role is
to adapt their art to suit the needs of the audience, however it is to provide cues to guide the
listener and outlines roles the composer wishes the audience to adopt. The authors of the article
hence appreciate that there is a gap in establishing which compositional model is the most
effective in the compositional process. The authors use the originators of each compositional
model and some other texts to structure their argument. in the Audience Addressed section, the
authors use Ruth Mitchell and Mary Taylor’s The Integrating Perspective: An Audience-Response

1 Ede, Lisa, and Andrea Lunsford. "Audience Addressed/Audience Invoked: The Role of Audience
in Composition Theory and Pedagogy." College Composition and Communication 35, no. 2.
2Auslander, Philip. “Performance Analysis and Popular Music: A Manifesto”. Contemporary
Theatre Review, no 1
3Pitts, Stephanie. “What Makes An Audience? Investigating the Roles and Experiences of
Listeners at a Chamber Music Festival.” Music and Letters, Volume 86, no 2
4 Ede, Lisa, and Andrea Lunsford. "Audience Addressed/Audience Invoked: The Role of Audience
in Composition Theory and Pedagogy." Pg 160
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Model for Writing5 as a case study due to its “theoretical richness and practical specificity”6 . Use
two major composition models (that they consider to be the only major existing models) which
describes the writer model and the model of the written product. Expressed in the article as
inherently accurate despite the limitations which accumulate to what is described as
“epistemologically naive assumptions which result in troubling pedagogical inconsistencies”7.
When discussing the audience invoked mind-frame, the authors discuss the founder, Ong, in
great detail and use his works as evidence. Ong attests that not only does he composer need to
seemingly ignore the audience in their compositional process, but similarly, the audience must
accept its role as an “audience that ‘really’ does not exist”8. The concluding paragraph of the
article reads to demonstrate the need for “balance in the creativity of the writer with the different,
but equally important, creativity of the reader” (pg 169). It acknowledges the “wide and shifting
range of roles”(169) for addressed and invoked audiences. It examines all arguments presented in
the article in order to grasp a greater understanding of composition.

Extending on the view presented by Ede and Lunsford of the relationship between composer and
audience, Auslander progresses this theme and discusses the feedback from performance to
audience and delineates the issues and importance of this. Moreover, Auslander uses his article in
order to outline the issue of music-based performance being excluded from theatre and
performance studies, advocating for music to be considered as a performance-based activity.
Moreover, it is unconventionally important for the irreplaceable relationship between musical
performance and audience to be highlighted as he uses this as his main point of evidence in
asserting its right in this genre of study. He outlines that this manifesto is of the point to highlight
the general injustice of this cause rather than applying it to certain case studies. Therefore, his use
of examples are brief and broad. However, Auslander uses his sources to argue the dominant
discourse at the time that the audience are passive participants in the performance process and
rather attests that they have a very important, and very active role in the performance process. He
litigates that the behaviour and the active response to the performance from the audience is genre
specific and even potentially performer specific. He uses a pop concert versus a classical concert
as an example. He attributes screaming and singing along as participating in the performance of a
pop concert versus the applause at the end of a classical concert. He presents a diagram to
illustrate the relationship between the performer and the audience. Performer- performance
persona- (character)- means of expression = audience. The composer delineates that the double
headed arrow before audiences “suggests that this is a two-way relationship: the audience is able
to give feedback to the performers using most (if not all) of the same means of expression used
by the performers”9. He attests that they feedback reveals itself in many forms such as
participation in live music, responses to recorded music, being a part of the popular music culture
and even attributes the decision to become a musician oneself as a feedback of performances
and examines this as “the ultimate response to popular music”10 .

Progressing from Auslanders view which established the broad ground in the discussion of the
role of the audience music, Pitts narrows the setting of which she discusses the topic, highlighting
broad issues in a specific context, therefore assisting readers to grasp the nature of the

5Mitchell, Ruth and Taylor, Mary “The Integrating Perspective: An Audience-Response Model for
Writing”

6 Ede, Lisa, and Andrea Lunsford. "Audience Addressed/Audience Invoked: The Role of Audience
in Composition Theory and Pedagogy." Pg 157
7 Ede, Lisa, and Andrea Lunsford. "Audience Addressed/Audience Invoked: The Role of Audience
in Composition Theory and Pedagogy." Pg 157
8 Ede, Lisa, and Andrea Lunsford. "Audience Addressed/Audience Invoked: The Role of Audience
in Composition Theory and Pedagogy." Pg 161 quoted in Ong, Walter “The Writer's Audience Is
Always a Fiction” no 1 (1975) pg 12
9Auslander, Philip. “Performance Analysis and Popular Music: A Manifesto”. Contemporary
Theatre Review, no 1 pg 11
10 Auslander, Philip. “Performance Analysis and Popular Music: A Manifesto”. Pg 13
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discussion. Pitts structures her article using subheadings, in order to form cohesive arguments
whilst also acknowledging how there is not a singular role of the audience but rather it takes so
many forms and the impact and importance of the relationship affects more than can be covered
in a singular form. In order to give credibility to her work, Pitts uses arguments presented by
ethnomusicologists such as Christopher Small and Richard Peterson in order to acknowledge
their merits and simultaneously highlight their flaws and develop the discourse surrounding the
relationship between audience and performer. Pitt’s article “questions the validity of prevailing
assumptions about the passive status of the audience by analysing the experiences of committed
concert hall listeners and offering new insights on their roles and perspectives”11. She argues that
western concert hall tradition of the modern day assumes the role of the listener to be passive
and solely able to respond to the performance through applause or their future attendance.
Through the article, she highlights how this chamber musical festival challenges these ideas and
how these benefited both the audience and performer and how they changed the audience’s
experience of concert-going. Pitts uses information and articles written by fellow
ethnomusicologists in order to frame her argument however in her justification for debating the
key models presented by these ethnomusicologists, she establishes that “through questionnaire,
interview, and diary responses, audience members reflected on their engagement with the festival
and its role in their lives, demonstrating a high level of loyalty, awareness, and involvement that
allowed them to feel fully participant in the musical event”.12 The argument presented in this
article demonstrates that enjoyment of the musical experience is significantly increased when the
audience has a form to participate in it. For example, preconcert talks or even selecting the
repertoire for the concert. Pitts attests that these findings should not singularly be used by
performers and concert organisers with the aim of increasing attendance and broadening the
demographics of the audience however, “Individual experience is at the heart of meaningful
listening, and recognition of the perspectives of audience members has much to contribute to
practical music-making and to a broader understanding of musical life in contemporary culture.”13

Thus, these articles attribute to the different ways I now approach my performance etiquette and
practice. Ede and Lunsford demonstrate the different fields in compositional methods and whilst I
am not a composition student, it is clear to me that I need to appreciate this in the development
of my pieces. Researching my composers and understanding who they composed for is priceless
in the musical approach I take to the piece. Similarly, their synthesis essentially argues that a
composer needs a balance between composing for themselves and composing for the audience
which can be translated into performance quite easily. For example, of course I need to perform
my pieces so that they enjoy it but I also have to enjoy the performance as well. I need to have the
piece so well practiced that by the time I have to perform it, I can let go and enjoy the moment.
Similarly I have to enjoy the piece I am performing. As student musicians, we get stuck performing
pieces we don’t want to play purely because our teacher tells us to play it whereas I believe that
the choosing of repertoire should be more collaborative as to ensure the enjoyment of the
performance because it is clear that if the performer enjoys what they perform, it translates to the
audience. Similarly, Ede and Auslunder’s assessment of the relationship between audience and
performer translates through to my performance practice. Their diagram presented and
referenced heavily throughout the article accentuates the circulatory nature of performance and
reiterates the sentiment described earlier of needing to enjoy the performance in order for the
audience to enjoy the performance because, and I can testify as an audience member, when a
performer doesn’t enjoy what they’re doing, its obvious. Furthermore, Pitt’s article inspired me in
the approach I take to the performance as an orchestral musician. It is evident that the role of the
audience has changed drasticallty in western music tradition, making the event a lot more formal
and structured than originally experienced. Prior to writing the essay, I very much enjoyed the
formalities of a symphony orchestra concert on both sides of the spectrum, as a performer but
similarly as an audience member. As a performer I used to be frustrated as a chamber musician

11Pitts, Stephanie. “What Makes An Audience? Investigating the Roles and Experiences of
Listeners at a Chamber Music Festival.” Music and Letters, Volume 86, no 2, (May 2005) Pg 257
12Pitts, Stephanie. “What Makes An Audience? Investigating the Roles and Experiences of
Listeners at a Chamber Music Festival.” Pg 259
13Pitts, Stephanie. “What Makes An Audience? Investigating the Roles and Experiences of
Listeners at a Chamber Music Festival.” Pg 269
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playing background music, feeling under appreciated considering the hours of preparation that
went on for the concert. However now I question my former train of thought. Originally, symphonic
music was to be done in the background, as audience members chattered and ate and I question
the value of going back to those roots every now and again, humbling the musicians but similarly
expanding the role of the audience further to make the musicians serve the audience by creating
background rather than the audience members serving the musicians by staying completely silent
and staying completely still, banned from clapping if they appreciate a part from the music and
simply left to applaud at the end, appreciating the symphonic work as a whole rather than morsels
of genius. Therefore, these articles spark new ways of thinking about performance and question
the roots of performance, asking whether this new discourse of music appreciation is beneficial
for either participant.
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Bibliography
Auslander, Philip. “Performance Analysis and Popular Music: A Manifesto”. Contemporary
Theatre Review, no 1 (2004): 1-13

Ede, Lisa, and Andrea Lunsford. "Audience Addressed/Audience Invoked: The Role of
Audience in Composition Theory and Pedagogy." College Composition and
Communication 35, no. 2 (1984): 155-171.

Mitchell, Ruth and Taylor, Mary “The Integrating Perspective: An Audience-Response

Model for Writing”

Ong, Walter “The Writer's Audience Is Always a Fiction” no 1 (1975)

Pitts, Stephanie. “What Makes An Audience? Investigating the Roles and Experiences of
Listeners at a Chamber Music Festival.” Music and Letters, Volume 86, no 2, (May 2005):
257–269.