Composing Individuals: Ethnographic Reections on Success and Prestige in the British New Music Network

In contrast to established musicians, lesser-known composers have received scant attention in art music scholarship. This article, based on an ethnographic study, considers how a group of British composers construed ideas of success and prestige, which I analyse in terms of anthropological writings on exchange, Bourdieusian symbolic economies, and Foucauldian notions of disciplinary power. Prestige was ascribed to composers who created ‘interesting’ music, a category that eclipsed novelty as an aim. Individuality, enacted within a context of individualism, was key to assessing whether music was interesting. This individuality had to be tempered, structured, and embedded in the social norms of this and related ‘art worlds’. The article examines the social processes involved in creating this individuality, musical personality, and music considered interesting. Success relates to achieving a position in a social hierarchy, to taking someone’s place, or some other desired outcome. Prestige, however, is a favourable impression made on others who must confer it back to the subject. Prestige must be constantly made and remade. Success does not necessarily entail prestige, for prestige must be achieved and ascribed; it involves a distinct form of social exchange. In this article, I explore success and prestige in a context which at first sight appears meritocratic, an ‘art world’ founded on notions of talent where positions of power and privilege are reproduced in part through an economy of exchange. That symbolic economies operate in spheres of cultural production is nothing new, and much excellent research in this area builds on the work of Pierre Bourdieu. But what interests me here is how success and prestige appear to operate in a specific context, the British new music network, based on the viewpoints of a specific group – young composers – and the broader implications for unpacking the making of prestige. | 115 For generously giving me their time and insights, I would like to thank the composers, performers, and British Music Information Centre staff who participated in this research. I am also extremely grateful to Henry Stobart, who guided me masterfully and inspiringly through this project when I was a Master’s student at Royal Holloway, University of London. I also thank Rachel Beckles Willson, Georgina Born, Rebecca Ellis, Noël Greig, Francesca Hanley, Bim Malcomson, Mónica Moreno Figueroa, Luke Stoneham, Charles Wilson, and the journal’s anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. All shortcomings are my own. 1 For example, Bourdieu, The Field of Cultural Production, 74–5.