Ecology of the Music Mind. On the Idea of “the Binding Pattern” in Christopher Small’s Concept of Musicking

The aim of this article is to analyse key aspects of the concept of musicking. Despite the fact that this term, coined by Christopher Small, has firmly entrenched in the scientific community, the context in which it is used does not reflect the nature of the neologism. The premise of Small’s word-making was the absence of a verbal noun corresponding to “music-making” in the English vocabulary. However, musicking is not the same as music-making. Unexpected semantic connections are also found when comparing the term musicking with the concept of “musurgia” used in medieval treatises. Small deliberately declined direct copying — the very process of creating the term determined his way of thinking. Not only did he modify the concept of the nature of music-making, expand the list of its participants, identify equivalent forms with specific features, but he also recognised musicking as a comprehensive phenomenon, specifically as musical art in the unity of its manifestations. To prove his point of view, Small appealed to the authority of Gregory Bateson, using the concept of “the binding pattern” borrowed from anthropology as the central element of the concept of musicking. Meanwhile, Small only outlined the boundaries of its use, though he intuitively sensed its limitless potential. In addition, his idea of the pattern as a multidimensional system of relations fundamentally differs from the interpretations accepted in musical art. According to Small’s hypothesis, when a piece of music is performed, all participants, including listeners, are able to “recognise” the metaphor of “the binding pattern”, which allows interpreting participation in musicking as a process of decoding vital information. In this situation, it seems logical to refer directly to Bateson’s works, as well as to the works of others, who pointed out the similarity of internal laws of the world of nature and the world of art. Such an angle will help us to reveal the uniqueness of Small’s concept and to justify the use of the term musicking as a tool of scientific analysis

Art · Cognitive science · Copying · Epistemology · Exemplification · Linguistics · Literature · Metaphor · Musical · Neologism · Phenomenon · Premise · Communication · Diverse Musicological Studies · History · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Neuroscience and Music Perception · Philosophy · Psychology