Dobson, 2010.pdf - University of Sheffield

254 Psychology of Music 39(2)
This article makes a distinction between ‘performance-related drinking’ and ‘drinking in
socio-professional contexts’. The two, of course, are often intertwined: while the string players
frequently attributed post-concert drinking to the pressure of performance, it was also presented
as a requisite of the job itself. In a lifestyle characterized by unpredictability and uncertainty,
work-related alcohol consumption appeared to provide a substitute for routines,
introducing structure into otherwise erratic working patterns. Cosper (1979) suggests that
drinking is used to express solidarity or group identity, especially in occupations that regard
themselves as ‘marginal’. Participants from both the jazz and strings groups acknowledged
drinking with colleagues as a way of realizing professional sociability, thus advancing and
maintaining work prospects. This study therefore identifies freelance musicians as an occupational
group in which alcohol consumption is seen as an almost obligatory professional practice.
Drawing on Cottrell’s (2004, p. 82) finding that for professional musicians ‘musical ability
and social competence are … closely intertwined’, I suggest that in the milieu in which freelance
musicians operate, drinking is an important means of exhibiting social – and consequently,
professional – expertise.
The findings of this study relating to musicians’ alcohol consumption have highlighted a
paucity of research in this important area. Very little literature specifically focuses on drinking
practices, or indeed the incidence of substance abuse, in classical performers. Perhaps classical
musicians, because of the ‘re-creative’ nature of the roles they inhabit, have been neglected in
this context, overshadowed by the allure of associating deviant behaviour with creative practice.
The string players presented ingrained drinking patterns as a result of an aspect of their
work which is not explicitly creative: the pressure arising from the requirement for accuracy to
the musical score. Remembering that the jazz musicians attributed drinking to availability,
boredom and professional socializing, it is clear that in this study, work-related alcohol consumption
in musicians was not connected to being creative at all.
It may be that the prominence of alcohol in the lives of classical performers has not emerged
in existing studies because of difficulties encountered by researchers in gaining the complete
trust of symphony orchestra musicians (Brodsky, 2006). A study of the stressors experienced
by musicians of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra (Piperek, 1981) acknowledges the effects of
tension induced by performance, finding that players constructed post-concert rituals to enable
the dissipation of tension, as did the freelance musicians in this study through alcohol consumption.
Yet the activities that constituted these rituals are somewhat tame compared with
the drinking patterns described by the participants in the present study: ‘Some have a talk with
friends. Others resort to television and the radio, the daily newspaper or sometimes a book. A
short walk or a glass of wine, or simply daydreaming, also help to reduce the tension’ (Piperek,
1981, p. 8). This could of course merely be a function of cultural differences, but it is notable
that Piperek’s study was commissioned by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra itself, raising questions
about whether the musicians, as salaried employees, felt they could be completely honest
about their behaviour. It is therefore recommended that comprehensive research is undertaken
to investigate classical musicians’ drinking cultures and habits, especially in relation to the
notion of professional sociability. For instance, how much importance is placed on professional
socializing by contracted orchestral players, and how does this relate to orchestral drinking
cultures?
The study could have been improved if the ratio of student to professional players had been
constant between the jazz and string groups. For example, the relatively small number of professional
string players interviewed limits the degree to which generalizations can be made about
the experiences of this subset of player. However, this research gains a rich insight into the world
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