Horn is a sound instrument (???)
Sound is a central idea in horn playing. The practical concern of how to produce sounds is as important as which sounds to produce, their qualitative characteristics, their aesthetic value and meaning.
It is not uncommon to conceive of horn playing as Sound Production. This metaphor brackets a lot of other interpretations. The metaphor can be applied in a “mechanistic” mode, or in a mode that’s more sensitive to the other metaphors - more “holistic”.
The “mechanistic” mode emphasises the physiology and physics of horn playing. Thus the logics are those of
Logics
- efficiency of sound production
- precision
- correct posture, embouchure
- correct breathing technique
- ergonomics
- choosing/designing a physically “perfect” instrument
- automating skills
In many ways, acting as an extension of the “mechanistic” mode, the wholistic mode extends the physiological and physical concerns to the realm of aesthetics
Logics
- beautiful sound
- meaning is in the sound
Tensions with other metaphors
The “mechanistic” mode’s implications of “correct”, “efficient”, “automatic” stand in tension with the logics of art, expression, cognition, mastery, just to name a few.
Assumption that, for example, “correct” posture exists presupposes a normative stance on the optimal posture, which in turn presupposes a normative stance on what the goal of horn playing is (optimal for what?). Arguably, an efficient, healthy technique that allows one to play what one is supposed to play in a sustainable way (over the period of a career) is the goal. But this, again, pressuposes that that the answer to the question “what is to be played” is evident.
The “correct”, the “efficient” might accompany Horn Playing as a Profession: the goal is to play what’s in the score. However, in the a more open-ended interpretation the efficiency and correctness is not evident sizes.
The logic “automatic” presupposed close-ended skills. It also raises questions when meeting certain accounts of expert cognition. While it has been argued that expert performance is akin to zombie reacting mindlessly/automatically to “the solicitations of environment” (Dreyfus), there is are good arguments for claiming that these views are insufficient in describing how experts skillfully cope in situation where expertise is called upon to be executed at the highest levels (Breivik on Dreyfus).
There is also a peculiar problem of posture in horn playing. While there is no doubt that certain ways of self-organization are better than others, there are two problems with the notion of posture. First, it appears to exclude movement: (horn playing is a static activity, horn player stands still, she shoul not move too much). Second, the mechanistic account of posture divorces cognition from behavior. Third, and related, it defines Being as composed of idle and act-ive states. I.e. there is a discontinuity of experience. A phenomenological account of being would argue against this choping of lived experience/consciousness.
Sources:
- FRW?
- Farkas?
- Schumann?