5: Discourse Communities

Not gonna lie, it took me a while to think of a discourse community that I’ve been a part of. But when I finally thought of one, the ideas just came flooding in and I immediately thought it was the perfect thing to talk about. 

Music is a big part of who I am and constitutes a big portion of what my interests are. Naturally, this had to have come from something. My love for music just got bigger with the different music groups/ensembles I’ve been a part of. Since my freshman year of high school up until now, I’ve been a part of marching band, wind ensemble, jazz band, orchestra, and even serving on the worship team for a church I used to attend as the keyboard player. 

I believe that the music world is a discourse community in itself but I will be identifying the key characteristics of what makes it one through music groups and ensembles. 

#1: A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals. 

A common public goal of a music ensemble as a discourse community is to work and play together to achieve a superior sound in order to perform for the public and music enthusiasts. 

#2: A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members. 

In any type of music ensemble, you will find that there are different sections within the actual group that work in closer in order to help the overall goal of playing better together. There are different ways the director communicates among the members of an ensemble. While playing a piece, the director’s job is to conduct. The most basic part of conducting is moving the arms in a continuous pattern simultaneously (for a piece that is in 4/4, it is usually down left, right, up when using the right arm and down, right, left, up when using the left arm). The musicians playing understands that when the director’s arms move down a new measure is starting, and this is helpful because it keeps the ensemble to play in unison and not play their parts as individuals but rather like they belong in a group. Even though this type of communication is not done through words, it is common understanding by both the conductor and those being conducted without the need for further explanation. There are countless more examples I can think of, but this was the most basic example that I think applies to almost all music ensembles. 

#3: A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback. 

In a music ensemble setting, participation is a big part of achieving the common goal of being able to perform a piece of music with exceptionally as a whole group. This is achieved mainly through participation and being actively involved in practices with the whole ensemble. Music ensembles go through hours and hours of practice just to perform for an hour or two for their audience. The “information” and “feedback” in a music ensemble setting refers to the director’s different orders when practicing and conducting with the whole group, or different sections in the ensemble (such as woodwinds, brass, percussion, etc.). The information and feedback provided by the music director is considered a participatory mechanism in helping to make the group better as a whole.  

#4: A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.

Music comes in all forms, whether it be jazz, classical, rock, or even contemporary. This means that there are different groups that cater to different audiences when it comes to music groups and ensembles. The kind of music ensembles I was involved with in the past were jazz band, marching band, wind ensemble, and orchestra. The music community is considered a discourse community because it is not limited to just one genre. The various types of music appeals to distinct audiences and this further pushes more purposes for music to be a big part of different cultures. 

#5: In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis.

Reading music is, obviously, a very big part of being able to play the music. I consider this to be the specific lexis that is relevant to this discourse community. The first thing on every staff line is a clef. This tells the musician which notes they will read and because the notes are different in a treble clef than it is on a bass clef. To make it simple, the treble clef is usually played with the right hand and the bass clef is usually played with the left hand for a pianist. Of course this is different for each instrument, but usually the higher pitched instruments are played with the treble clef (violin, flute, clarinet, etc.) while the bass clef is played on the lower pitched instruments (cello, trombone, tuba, etc.). This is an example of a lexis that can be found in the music discourse community. Another example are the dynamics that indicate to the player how loud to play a specific part of the piece. It varies throughout the piece, so it is essential that every single player follows it and plays it according to the sheet music so that no single person stands out while everyone else plays a pianissimo (indicated by pp in the sheet music) dynamic. 

treble clef 

 

bass clef 

dynamic markings 

#6: A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discourse expertise. 

The older the people in a music ensemble are, the more it usually means that the group is more experienced and can therefore play at a higher level than, say, a middle school or high school band. Music groups and ensembles are their own discourse communities because there are countless numbers of groups out there that fit specific requirements for different players of various ages, experience and level. But in the end, these groups work together in order to perform their best for their specific audience. 

I actually really enjoyed writing this blog post, so I'm sorry if it was too long for anyone to read. If you can't tell, I get really excited when I talk about anything music related and start to babble on and on and on. But anyways, hope this didn't bore you too much! 

- Julianna Duque