UC Davis

Before the development of recording and broadcasting technologies, the experience of music was ephemeral. Back then, the term "live" was unnecessary because to experience music meant to be physically present at an event. Media such as radio, television, and the internet, however, have since challenged people’s understanding of liveness, for instance, by using the word "live" to describe performances recorded in front of an audience and transmitted at a different location, simultaneously or later. Over the past two decades, routine advances in high-quality audio recording technology threatened the point and popularity of in-person live music performances, yet the appetite for such events has persisted and even flourished. In this dissertation, I examine the production and reception of live music within the context of a regional performing arts center, specifically, the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts (Mondavi Center) located on the campus of the University of California, Davis. Founded on the conviction that music is primarily a social practice, my dissertation examines the interactions that create live performances, with special attention to the influence of the physical and operational characteristics of the venue—in this case, the Mondavi Center. My data was gathered during performances in a variety of music styles that were part of the 2019-2020 Mondavi Center season. Using the participant-observer method, supplemented with audience surveys, autoethnography, and interviews with musicians and members of the audience, I sought connections and interactions between musicians and their audiences, among musicians, and among members of the audience. I originally intended my research to focus exclusively on the live music experience at the Mondavi Center. However, the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced live music venues to rethink audience attraction and engagement, provided an opportunity to expand the field of my research to a variety of virtual settings, namely a website, a computer game, and concert venues accessed through a virtual reality headset.In this dissertation, I develop a theoretical framework for thinking about the live interaction between musicians and their audiences which I call the “Energy Transmission Loop.” The Energy Transmission Loop is a representation of how members of the audience and artists influence each other during a performance. This framework is based on the kinds of interactions, levels of musical immersion, and manifestations of intimacy that each setting provides. My examination of the music experience in the digital domain led me to refine my framework. I expand the notion of the Loop to interpret interactions that develop asynchronously by means of an “Energy Transmission Spiral.” Through the Energy Transmission Loop and the Energy Transmission Spiral, I illustrate the characteristics of the audience-musician interactions that occur in an in-person live music experience and in a variety of virtual live music experiences. Technological advances will continue to facilitate access to an increasing array of mediated music experiences; in this dissertation I propose that a more nuanced understanding of the significance of the concept of liveness in relation to music, which recognizes key connections and interactions as integral elements, can lead to innovative and effective approaches to production, programming, marketing, and preservation of music experiences.