Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening (Music / Culture)

Extending the inquiry of his early groundbreaking books, Christopher Small strikes at the heart of traditional studies of Western music by asserting that music is not a thing, but rather an activity. In this new book, Small outlines a theory of what he terms "musicking," a verb that encompasses all musical activity from composing to performing to listening to a Walkman to singing in the shower.

Using Gregory Bateson's philosophy of mind and a Geertzian thick description of a typical concert in a typical symphony hall, Small demonstrates how musicking forms a ritual through which all the participants explore and celebrate the relationships that constitute their social identity. This engaging and deftly written trip through the concert hall will have readers rethinking every aspect of their musical worlds.

• Music in Everyday Life
• Music as Social Life: The Politics of Participation (Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology)
• Ethnomusicology: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
• In Search of Music Education
• Music-Society-Education (A Platform book)
• Sessions with Sinatra: Frank Sinatra and the Art of Recording
• Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams
• In Performance
• Real Men Don't Sing: Crooning in American Culture (Refiguring American Music)
• Remixing the Classroom: Toward an Open Philosophy of Music Education (Counterpoints: Music and Education)