Comprehensive musicianship REDUX

When I was a younger whippersnapper, we used a text called “Music in Theory and Practice” by Bruce Benward. Though situated entirely in the legacy of the Western European tradition, the book was nevertheless a gentle nod toward something call Comprehensive Musicianship —integrating theory, history, and performance into a synergistic program greater than the sum of its parts. I realize now that this provided me the first inkling of what would become the Global Musicianship Project. Because the GMP is in fact “music in theory and practice” but on the larger human scale. Music must be situated in history and practice to make any sense, even though we assert here that there are qualified universal principles at work in different ways across different musics. It is the context that drives the specific result, and there are an infinity of contexts that arise across time and space. This is in part what makes music an art and not a science — and that’s a refreshing reminder in a time when some think AI threatens fundamental human endeavors. The truth is that AI can become an incredibly astute musical technician and analyst, but I don’t believe it will ever experience music like a human does — in a human context. And so what would be the point? If AI can help us understand our human musical experience better at some level, that’s valuable; if it can help us ask questions leading to insight, that’s worth something. But that’s it. There is a realization dawning today that human creative and cultural experience will be the thing left standing. Comprehensive Global Musicianship can help us see that, and retain it.