Article

Playing Together and Solitary Play: Musicking and Surfing

Timothy J. Cooley

Published in: Ethnomusicology Ireland 1 (2011)

Pages: 41-56 | Published Online: 2011

https://doi.org/10.64208/JBTR5149

Abstract

What is the evolutionary need for musicking? Most explanations for this that I have seen end up talking about finding mates—the evolutionary equivalent to the colorful plumage of a peacock. No doubt there is something to that hypothesis of musicking, but I imagine many in this room today know intuitively that we play music together for complex and profound reasons that may include but go well beyond our desire for a partner. I want to suggest ways to get at understanding, interpreting, and even coming to terms with that need—that sweet, gnawing need to make music together. This may be our greatest challenge as musicologists in Charles Seeger’s sense as those who science about music—all of us who take music seriously enough to wonder how it works as sound, as social behavior, as cultural practice. My approach comes out of ethnomusicology, a discipline I suppose I represent but also a discipline I critique here as I try to come to terms with the whys and hows of group musicking.

Keywords: Group musicking, evolution

Author: Timothy J. Cooley