A New Approach to Relationships in Live Music: Redefining Emotional Content and Meaning

Live music is a social and artistic activity where all its participants establish a set of relationships in real time, mediated by different musical, social, psychological and environmental factors. The aim of this research is to study the relationships between audiences and musicians and their influence in the processes that lead to the generation of emotions and the creation of meaning. By taking a transdisciplinary view, I am trying to bridge some of the divides that frequently appear in music research (object-activity, aesthetic-social, etc.) and so I want to go beyond common artificial investigations about emotions and meaning in music by reflecting on the complex nature of real music experiences. The methodological approach is mainly qualitative — based on observations, and interviews; however, some quantitative data from a survey have also been taken into account. The research has been carried out as a case study that had the concerts of El Teatre Instrumental, an orchestra that specialises in the repertoire of the classical period, as its object.