Interaction at the orchestra rehearsal : an ethnomethodological inquiry in rehearsing practices

Abstract

When listening to music performed by an orchestra, the fluency with which musicians follow the guidelines of their conductor appears stunning. This study examines the interactions taking place at rehearsals that are considered to help musicians reach this level of fluency. One of the key terms for this study is communities of practice that are social configurations defined through practice. The participants of the study are be lieved to develop a community of practice of musicians through rehearsing, which is both affected by and results in the performance fluency. The study uses video-recordings of three rehearsals, collected at an orchestra from a higher institution in Finland. The whole database encompasses three hours of footage, out of which I chose three extracts. Each extract is between 10 to 20 seconds long. The interaction taking place at the rehearsals is transcribed and analysed with the help of ethnomethodological conventions. This study explores how the orchestra is getting interactively competent at playing together. The findings reveal how the musicians and the conductor adjust to each other during the rehearsal. The analysis suggests that coordination and the use of scaffolding strategies serve as the base for developing a CoP of musicians. As the findings suggest making music together might produce an equally mean ingful context. Thus, it challenges the dominant view on linguistic diversity and the display of “national cultures”.