Amateur Culture as Music Lover
We have talked about ‘amateur culture’ but it will be more proper to explain the amateur by a specific field, such as music. At first, we should question frequently used ‘amateur musician’ concept. The word ‘musician’ is a vocational expression and therefore refers to professionalism, the use of the word in conjunction with ‘amateur’ stands in contrast. Even, we have noticed that the use of ‘musician’ concept become widespread for many meanings, still, ‘amateur musician’ sounds unmusical for questioning ears.
“Musician: ‘one skilled in music,’ from Old French musicien (14c.), or a native formation from music + -ian. Sense of ‘professional musical performer’ is attested from mid-15c.” [1]
It may be more appropriate to use expressions such as ‘music enthusiast’ or ‘music lover’ that we come across in various sources.
Amateur Cultural Understanding on Music
In this study, it is necessary to explain our meaning with amateur music.
- Music is not the main livelihood of anyone engaged in such an occupation. Either s/he earns his/her living from another profession or s/he has no worries about keeping food on the table.
- In addition, he did not receive formal education from conservatories, universities or any equivalent institutions.
- Nowadays, thanks to the increasing course opportunities, the crowd, which take music lessons, but does not exercise and make effort outside of the class time, does not show the importance it deserves, under the name of hobby, is outside of our concept.
- Amateur does not exclude seriousness. Issues such as rhythm, intonation (pressing the correct pitch) and technique are also important in amateur works. Regular and careful performance is required.
- The point where the amateur differs from the professional may be the repertoire. The first group can form a more modest, less complex repertoire. However, there is no compromise on the truths of the music or any specific field.
When these features can easily be applied to all fields of life to evaluate amateur pursuits, of course, all four points may not cover every amateur individual. Especially, education and repertoire can show different trends. The facts those the main source of livelihood is not music and showing seriousness is the sine qua non of amateur.
The article only serves a functional frame of amateur from a musical perspective.
Follow Amateur Culture with the flow of Music
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