Music is Rhythm, Rhythm is Life: The Living Moment
Symbolic Interactionist Takes on Music
ISBN: 978-1-78635-048-0, eISBN: 978-1-78635-047-3
Publication date: 1 October 2016
Abstract
“Music is Rhythm, Rhythm is Life.” This maxim, uttered by former Motown drummer Bill “Sticks” Nicks to my class and me a few years back, opens a portal to what being human involves. Most accounts of what it means to be human make cognitive capacities, language and reflective thinking, the be-all and end-all of human distinction. But think about it: how many animals do you know who beat rhythm for aesthetic enjoyment and social communion?
In this essay I reflect upon moments from musical experiences, primarily from blues music, to illustrate the place of the spontaneous gesture and ensemble improvisation in interaction, in and out of the music.
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Citation
Halton, E. (2016), "Music is Rhythm, Rhythm is Life: The Living Moment", Symbolic Interactionist Takes on Music (Studies in Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 47), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 197-211. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0163-239620160000047021
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016 Emerald Group Publishing Limited