In this text you will find a further examination of how ‘the element of play’ (Huizinga) matches with 21st century music practice.

Research question – central query
The Lectorate proposes a research and revaluation of the professional image of the musician and its extension in the sense of the artist of the 21st century.

Revaluation of the professional image
The choice of the terminology ‘professional image’ refers to the social functioning of the musician. It points to the musician in his/hers working environment. Also here the basis of this is what the musician actually does. It runs parallel to the ways of working within professional profiles and competencies. The revaluation of the ‘professional image’, as it is here understood, does not add anything to this concept. It researches, revaluates, formulates and attempts to make us conscious of its meaning; as well as which values play a part in a changing practice. This acquirement of consciousness, together with the process towards it, adds an important element to the social, cultural and educative function of the musician.

The element of play
The historian Huizinga (1938) sketches in his research to the meaning of the playful element as the fundament of culture an image of man as homo ludens. The musician, conceived as a playful being, challenges the practice of music in a fundamental level forcing the pronouncement about meaning and values. The lectorate refers regularly to Huizinga’s Homo Ludens. The central concept here is the ‘element of play’.

To read the full text, click here: teacher-of-the-21st-century-and-the-element-of-play.pdf .