Musicking: Is it a neologism that cannot be translated into Russian, or an actual concept?

Abstract

The subject of the article is a critical understanding of the popular English neologism “musicking” from a terminological standpoint. The formal reason that prompted Christopher Small to invent the word was the desire to introduce a lexical unit that reveals the creative power of music. However, a wrong idea of connection between the word “musicking” and a verbal noun present in some European languages (Rus. “muzitsirovanie”, Germ. “das Musizieren”), led to the widespread use of neologism as a “buzzword”, while the research potential of Small’s concept still remains undisclosed. Meanwhile, the full name of the concept — “Musicking: the meanings of performing and listening” — indicates that by “musicking” the author did not mean individual artistic practices, but the creation of new meanings by common efforts. This makes it possible to correlate the term “musicking” with the notion “musical collaborative creativity”.
The central place in the “Musicking” concept is occupied by the “pattern which connects” — a metaphor that reveals the specifics of collaborative creativity through the analysis of spiritual, historical, social, functional, and spatial relationships. According to the observations of the author of this journal article, it is the study of meaning-forming contexts that is the most promising direction for further development of the Small’s concept.