Music Making as Civic Imagination: A Journey to Terrapolis
摘要
This chapter takes a philosophical approach in considering how music making might be a resource for both civic imagining and beginning to inhabit social worlds which exist—albeit temporarily in the musical moment—outside of the ideological constraints of the capitalist orthodoxy permeating global society. It outlines a theory of music making as the ‘performance’ both of human relationships and of the humanistic values of reciprocity, love, and democratic equality, which are considered important attitudinal attributes for a move toward a more sustainable future. It positions ethically-guided music making as a form of terrapolitanism, making changes to the social fabric at a local level as a means of reclaiming agency and autonomy in response to global challenges. Such an approach emphasises the spiritual dimension of music making, arising from the complex ways in which participants ‘tune in’ to one another through collective music making. It also highlights the potential of music making for developing posthuman or terrapolitan attitudes by extending such attunement to non-human and more-than-human entities including the natural environment. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of such shifts concerning the purpose and value of music making for the conceptualisation and delivery of music education in general.