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Abstract

This ethnomusicological study explores the practice of musical social engagement at The Yehudi Menuhin School, examining its impact upon alumni and wider influence. Menuhin’s career was often seen to engage music-making with his humanitarian ideals, and this was echoed by an extensive range of similar initiatives undertaken within his School. The latter activity is contextualised here within the broader field of specialist music education in Britain, and followed by an exploration of other institutions whose origins can be linked to musical social engagement work at the School. One such organisation, Live Music Now, whose initiatives mirror those of the School albeit on a larger scale, represents the culmination of the thesis, and thus offers a broader context to the effects upon alumni of delivering music in the community. Whilst there has been some understanding of the impact of both the School’s and Live Music Now’s musical social engagement initiatives on the communities they serve, the secondary effect of how these have influenced the lives of the musicians providing these services is largely unknown.

This mixed-methods research project features sixty-four qualitative interviews and a survey involving ninety-nine alumni of The Yehudi Menuhin School and Live Music Now respectively. Further, the project is situated within a dramatically changing landscape of social engagement for musicians over the past fifty years. Therefore, the ethnography not only explores the influence of the programmes upon their students and the legacies of certain individuals who were central to them, but also the extent to which this heritage has contributed to broader national contexts.

The principal findings feature an extensive institutional legacy of the School’s musical social engagement, driven not only by Menuhin, but several notable figures in music education. Further, the delivery of music in the community by alumni of both the School and Live Music Now yielded many formative impressions, resulting in instances of related subsequent work.

Publication Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	M Music and Books on Music > M Music
Departments:	School of Communication & Creativity > Department of Performing Arts School of Communication & Creativity > School of Communication & Creativity Doctoral Theses Doctoral Theses

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