Music Making and Civic Imagination

Dr. Dave Camlin’s musical practice spans performance, composition, teaching, Community Music (CM) and research. He lectures in music education at the Royal College of Music and Trinity-Laban Conservatoire and was head of HE/Research at Sage Gateshead from 2010-19.

• ForewordAcknowledgementsPART 1 INTRODUCTION1. Music in an Uncertain World- An uncertain future- The value of musicing- Hysteresis- Changing value of music- Key themes - Musicing, musicking, ‘musicians’ and musician–researchers- Musician-as-researcher - Being human- Diffraction/waveform interference- Terrapolis- Bumps in the road- Inequalities of cultural access- Devaluation of music - Summary- Who is this book for?- Structure and contents2. Libraries Gave Us Power- This is my truth…- Sage Gateshead and beyond- Praxis- Thinking about music PART 2 THINKING ABOUT MUSIC3. Music as a Complex Adaptive System- 600+ Mechanisms- Complex adaptive systems (CAS)- Music as a polyvalent system- The advocacy trap- All roads lead to complexity- Music as gestalt- Music in human evolution- Music as communicative medium- Entrainment - Communicative musicality- What’s love got to do with it?- What is love anyway?- The limbic system- Interpersonal neurobiology - Feeling felt- What’s music got to do with it?- Agential realism- Entanglement and intra-action - Diffraction - Apparatus- The aesthetic ‘cut’- Music as a vitality - ‘Affect’ attunement - Conclusion 4. Performing Works, Performing Relationships - Background- Sage Gateshead- Praxis- Music in three dimensions- Dimensions- Musical dimensions- Aesthetic – The performance of musical ‘Works’- Participatory – The ‘Performance’ of relationships - Musical continuum- Paramusical dimension - Assumptions- Reflective questions- Holistic - Holistic assumptions - Reflective questions- Implications- Holistic philosophy of music - Quality is contingent - Dialogue - Dissensus - Epistemology - Praxis - Conclusion 5. Music, Politics and Society- Honourable and dishonourable traditions- The ‘polis’ - Bonding and bridging social capital - Feeling felt- Musical citizens - Music and the family - Music and the community- Limits of human cooperation- Music and the people- Music and the nation-state - Music and national identity - Estonian singing revolution - Music as a national political resource - Injustice and the difference principle - Vigilance- Rational communities of music - Doxa - Intervention - The community of those who have nothing in common - Addressing cultural inequalities - Application of knowledge - The word ‘cope’ and the word ‘change’6. Music Making and Civic Imagination- Citizens of the planet 126- Cosmopolitanism 127- Critics of cosmopolitanism 128- Post-nationalism 129- Terrapolitanism 130- What is civic imagination? 132- Dialects of civic imagination 133- Disavowal of politics 136- Sovereignty of the states 137- European project as civic imagination 139- Music making and civic imagination 141- Music and the dialects of civic imagination 142- Disavowal of politics through artistic expression 143- Vigilance as qualifier 145- Music’s floating intentionality 146- Mobilization of terrapolitan identity 147- Intertextuality 148- Terrapolitanism is not a competition 149- The performance of values 151- Nationalist/capitalist values 152- Humanist values 152- Performing love 153- Performing reciprocity 154- Performing justice 154- Performance of virtue 155- Problems of humanism 156- Musicing in a post-human world 156- Musical citizens of the planet 158- Music and the universe next door 159- Practical applications 161PART 3 PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS7. This Musician- Socially engaged student performances at Sage Gateshead- Example 1: We are who we can be- Example 2: Big about Corby- Example 3: Fram fest- Example 4: Disability dilemmas- Assessing quality- Student encounters with participatory music at the Royal College of Music- Participatory projects- This place- These people8. Musician Education- What are we educating musicians for?- What is music for?- Portfolio careers in music- Praxis- Skills, attributes and values- Authenticity- Diffractive pedagogy- Organizational dynamics- Situational music education pedagogy - Situational leadership - Limitations - ConclusionsReferencesIndex

'[As] I read Camlin’s work, I was struck by its criticality and reflexivity. It avoids simplistic claims such as “music can solve everything”. The depth of scholarship underpinning his arguments situates music as socially meaningful and biologically adaptive, while also providing a vocabulary for imagining inclusive, ethical, and civic possibilities in music education...Reading this book resonated deeply with me as an early-career researcher navigating music education with a social justice focus. Camlin’s text functions almost as a companion voice, offering guidance and reassurance when direct mentorship or reflective conversations may not be immediately available. One of the book’s most striking contributions is its insistence on teaching with rather than teaching to, reframing educators as collaborators and companions who create spaces for exploration and collective imagination... Overall, Camlin’s work affirms the social and biological significance of music, challenges dominant logics of measurement and productivity and invites educators to envision learning spaces in which participation, difference, creativity and ethical engagement are valued intrinsically. I believe this will be an essential reading for anyone committed to transforming music education or who needs a reassuring reminder that the complexity, challenges and exhaustion of this work are valid.'