Nick Poulakis
The second sphere of the research refers to particular performative and administrative bodies of western art music in Greece, namely the musical ensembles and the cultural organizations. Initially, there were some difficulties in conceptualizing the research field, especially as regards the terms “institution” and “organization”. Following the extended literature review, the specified term “organization” has been chosen in order to avoid the theoretical and epistemological polysemy that is connected with the use the generic term “institution” in social sciences. In our research the term “organization” includes various entities (bodies, associations, unions, companies, groups, ensembles and other collectivities), which have clear goals, limits and behaviors based on bureaucratic structures and interpersonal relations; develop new practices through participating in social, cultural and economic changes; interact each other and formulate networks of western art music in Greece. Methodologically speaking, the second sphere of the research is supposed to be a critical political and economic study of the subject matter, through thick description, discourse analysis, semiotic interpretation, as well as the presentation of a case study. Emphasis was also given to the concepts of “practice”, “performance” and “network” within the historical and cultural framework of current social and financial crisis, as well as the process of the Greek-European integration during the last 30 years. Considering the huge amount of information, our research was limited in the area of the capital and the vice-capital city of Greece, that is Athens and Thessaloniki. However, even in these big cities the number of the organizations is significant. We have identified numerous entities whose principal or secondary targeting involves western art music. At first, in a general level, we listed over 60 formal cultural organizations and attempted to detect some informal entities (mainly music bands and groups that have no legal status or systematic presence). Quantitatively, most organizations are of a medium or small size, while the large ones are few. During the second stage, we took a more substantial and thorough investigation of the most significant and well-known organizations such as the Megaron Athens Concert Hall, which includes the Athens Concert Hall Organization, the Friends of Music Society, the Lilian Voudouri Great Music Library of Greece and the resident orchestra of the Friends of Music, named Athens Camerata or Armonia Atenea; the Thessaloniki Concert Hall Organization; the Athens State Orchestra; the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra; the Greek National Opera; the Orchestra of Colours; the National Symphony Orchestra of the New Hellenic Radio Internet Television; the Musical Ensembles of the Municipality of Athens (the Symphony Orchestra, the Big Band, the Greek Music Workshop and the Athens Mixed Municipal Choir); the Greek Composers Union; the Onassis Cultural Centre etc. These entities are mainly organizations artistically active in the theatrical performance of western art music and politically and economically founded on a complex administrative, operational and managerial bureaucracy. However, we have not included entities covered by the other two spheres of the project (“music education” and “music festivals”), although relevant educational and festival dimensions are evident in all kinds of ensembles and organizations examined. For the purposes of the research, we have created three databases, which are constantly updated and will be used as a source for our analysis and synthesis. The first database is a brief description list of musical ensembles and cultural organizations. The second one concerns key-persons correlated with several bodies or moving autonomously in the field of western art music. The third one is a corpus of texts (interviews, questionnaires, surveys, fieldnotes, web reports, press articles, journals comments, reviews, papers, etc.), which have come either from primary or secondary documentation. For about thirty years –starting with the entry of Greece into the European Economic Community– up to the last years before the economic crisis, there has been relatively stable conditions in the field of cultural policy and the economic state of affairs in music culture, characterized by: a) the commercialization and massification of music at all levels, b) the enlargement of financing either from Greek (governmental or private) and/or European funds, c) the selective support to certain musical/cultural institutions, ensembles, actions and persons, d) the separation of music genres and the stabilization of audiences. It is however important to underline that some music activities developed in the Greece, usually not autonomously but within the framework of extensive cultural programs co-financed by the European Union and national funs (Kaleidoscope, Raphael, Cultural Capitals of Europe, Culture 2000 and Culture 2007). It has become evident that the conditions in the field of western art music have benn transformed significantly in Greece of social and economic crisis of recent years, particularly with regard to music ensembles and cultural organizations. Badiou’s term “event” can describe and –to some extent– interpret the crisis’ phenomenon. Like “event”, “crisis” is also something unexpected, undefined, unpredictable, unavoidable but so important that disrupts the status quo and challenges the habits, the dispositions and the rules of the idiosyncratic and systemic field (that is Bourdieu’s “habitus”). In fact, crisis leads to radical changes, new directions, general ruptures and transformations of practices. As reflected in our study, the accumulated difficulties of the years before, coupled with the serious economic, administrative and socio-political problems that arose during the crisis, resulted in the dramatic change of the landscape and the redefinition of practices and networks in the field of culture. In order to highlight some aspects of the political economy of western art music in Greece, we will describe briefly through specific examples how the crisis affected the ensembles and the bodies of culture, on the part of the organizations themselves but also the persons associated with them, in two main directions: the economic-administrative and the cultural-artistic. In the context of a globalized, individualistic and economy-centered manipulation of current social, political and cultural reality, the major effect during a crisis occurs at the economic level. Undoubtedly, the field of culture and the arts, as part influenced by and shaped into the above system, cannot avoid these consequences. |