MÓDULO 2, MATERIAL DE APORTE

Auslander proposes that ‘the entity the audience sees performing the music should be understood as the performer’s musical personae’ (2015a, p. 318; emphasis in original). Auslander’s pivotal work on persona expands on a tripartite character structure proposed by Frith (1996), and these adaptations have been pivotal in describing the performance presentation of musicians in the popular music sphere. Identifying that there are three layers to the physical presentation of a performing popular musician, Auslander (2004) terms these ‘the real person’, ‘the performance persona’, and ‘the character’. The first is reference to the actual person – the real personality and his/her characteristics (termed by (Frith, 1996) as ‘The Performer as Human Being’). The ‘performance persona’ (Frith’s ‘star personality or image’) is a public performance image that the consuming public associate with that individual. And the final category, ‘the character’ (Frith’s ‘song personality’), is considered to be the character depicted through the lyrical narrative of the song. In his initial concept, Frith (1996) focusses solely on the different layers of a popular vocalist’s

performance. However, Auslander wanted the ideology to include instrumentalists as well as vocalists, which is why he considers ‘the character’ to be an optional strata, stating that ‘instrumentalists enact personae even if they seldom portray characters’ (2015, p.69).

This thesis attests that Auslander’s persona categories can be formed through the types of event schema which one develops for themselves as a performer. The concept of his ‘performance persona’ can be considered in different ways, but using

similar concepts. Firstly, performance persona may be seen principally in terms of the type of musician you are, and your performance style is considered in regard to how you have learnt to play your chosen instrument.

For example, the performance persona of Jimi Hendrix (see figure 3.9) is mainly remembered for the distinctive way in which he played the guitar. His mannerisms will have been built on event schema regarding this performance style, and also the kind of goals he may have had in mind about the type of player he wanted to project. This complex interaction between the different types of event schema one learns, helps to define oneself as a musician. Similarly, performance persona can be based on personality which, through activity, shows the kind of character goals one has. This is built on event schema because of the goals regarding the type of character one is inhabiting.

Figure 3.9: Jimi Hendrix Photo: www.ulcradio.wordpress.com

Rather than considering musical persona as completely constructed, Auslander (2015a) suggests considering persona as a presentation of self. Understanding that the Performance Persona of a delivering musician does not have to be a completely artificial creation and adaptation is important – especially with regards to pedagogy and the teaching of music performance. Auslander believes that ‘musicians usually

appear as themselves playing music’ (Auslander, 2006, p. 104) and if musical persona is considered to be an extension of the self, and not necessarily a fully artificial concept and creation, we should take into account Goffman’s (1959) sociological adaptation of dramaturgy.29 _{‘Life is a dramatically enacted thing’} (Goffman, 1959, p. 78) and at the heart of dramaturgical theory is that human

behaviour is observed and analysed through its context rather than by examining its causes. ‘Like all presentations of self, musical persona is situated; it is the

performance of a specific social role for a particular audience in a defined context’ (Auslander, 2015a, p. 318; emphasis in original). For Goffman, performance is

all the activity of an individual which occurs during a period marked by his continuous presence before a particular set of observers and which has some influence on the observers’ (1959, p. 22),

and this is present in a variety of social situations. Our demeanours and personalities adapt to fit in with the surroundings and expectations of the individuals engaged with this transactional process, and in which there are both intentional and unintentional expressions of communication (Goffman, 1959).

The intentional expression can be described as the deliberate act of communication, predominantly through verbal means – the right words spoken at the right time in the right order – which Goffman determines as ‘the expression he gives’. The opposition to this is ‘the expression he gives off’ (Goffman, 1959, p. 14). These are the

unintentional and, most likely, non-verbal forms of behaviour which, although deemed as a more theatrical and contextual approach, are most likely to describe

the authentic feelings of the communicator. The expressiveness of the given action is of crucial importance and if a performance is deemed as successful, this is because the ‘audience’ views the ‘actor’ as he or she wants to be perceived – i.e. a performance can only be considered as ‘real’ when the intentions of the performer are considered to be genuine or sincere. Convincing an audience of genuine intent is a precarious and skilled endeavour, and this can become part of a cyclic movement of disbelief and belief, meaning that what starts off as simply performing may end up as actual belief. In other words, a contrived persona becomes reality. The impression of reality ‘is a delicate, fragile thing that can be shattered by minor mishaps’

(Goffman, 1959, p. 63) but if successful, the enactment of a persona can ultimately convince even the performer him- (or her-) self; persuading them that reality is actually that which has been contrived. This may provide some explanation as to why performers sometimes believe that they are completely ‘themselves’ in the performance.

At the heart of Goffman’s theory is that we do not possess a single persona, but rather that we have multiple personae that we adopt in various different situations and circumstances. Therefore, one of the main ways in which one may determine context is not just based on their surroundings, but also on the way that other people are behaving in those particular surroundings; both of which will determine one’s own behaviour. From a musical perspective, working within different types of ensemble will result in different behaviour depending on the personalities and behaviour of the other members and on the genre of the music being performed, which is also considered to be of equal importance. This is supported by Auslander who writes that ‘just as any presentation of self is context-dependent, so musical

persona is genre dependent’ (2015a, p. 318). Auslander also notes, in line with suggestions posed by Franco Fabbri (1981), that ‘each genre carries with it expectations as to what musicians and audiences will look like and how they will behave and interact’ (2015a, p. 318).

In addition to behaviour being determined by the ensemble in which one performs, behaviour can also alter when a musician is working on different songs (resulting from genre and stylistic expectations and norms as stated in the previous

paragraph). Someone’s behaviour as an accompanist is different from their individual behaviour as a soloist, and, on a moment-to-moment basis, their behaviour as an accompanist might be partially determined by how the musician they are

accompanying performs as a soloist. There may be deviations of rhythm which they need to follow, or unplanned idiosyncrasies in the delivery of the given song. The concept of Goffman’s dramaturgy with regards to the idea of how different event schema are associated with different contexts is, for this study, a key aspect of persona. This is because the way in which a musician behaves in a given situation is the demonstration of character that their fellow musicians, and the audience, will receive – i.e. they are not going to know anything about a different internal identity which the performer may be experiencing.