The “Bedrock” of Musical Endeavor: Trust in Ensemble Rehearsals A Multiple Study Dissertation

Abstract

Introduction: The purpose of this dissertation is to contribute to the body of research that has investigated the psycho-social construct of trust present in everyday interactions between leaders and members, whether those be a supervisor and employees or an ensemble conductor and the performers. This dissertation contains three papers on the topic of trust, including one theoretical framework and two quantitative studies. While the central focus of this dissertation is the building and perception of trust between conductors and ensemble members in a community band setting, the applications of these findings may include school and professional ensembles. A brief summary of each paper contained within the dissertation is described below.Paper One: The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for analyzing trust within the context of a community band setting. Borrowing from a model of trust oft-cited in the field of organization management, I suggest a framework of understanding trust and related constructs, sources, and outcomes as a jumping-off point for future studies of this phenomenon and behaviors associated with the building of trust within the medium of music ensembles. Paper Two: The purpose of this study was to develop a reliable and valid instrument to measure trust, factors of perceived trustworthiness, and potential consequence outcomes of trust efficacy, identity, and agency. Adapting previously constructed scales measuring perceptions of factors of perceived trustworthiness and the proposed outcomes of efficacy, identity, and agency provides a snapshot of the growth of trust and its consequences at a specific point in time. Findings reveal interconnected relationships between factors of trustworthiness and in particular the outcome of efficacy, as well as the association of group identity with self-efficacy. New scales measuring self-identity and agency were reliably developed, as well as a scale measuring an atmosphere of trust in the ensemble setting. Paper Three: The purpose of this study is to document the ways in which a conductor demonstrates his perceptions of the ensemble’s factors of perceived trustworthiness (ability, benevolence, and integrity). Building on a previously used coding scheme of the structures and organization of community music activities, I coded verbal behaviors of feedback as having a reference to one of the factors of perceived trustworthiness, which provides participants with references to how the conductor feels about them and the overall trust the conductor places in the ensemble. Across seven ensemble rehearsals of an exemplar community band, findings indicate overall feedback as being highly critical, rather than positive, despite previous reports of community ensembles to the contrary. Furthermore, by far most feedback was related to the factor of trustworthiness of ability, followed secondly by integrity and lastly by benevolence, indicating that while community bands might value the social nature of ensembles, the primary focus of at least in-rehearsal feedback is the performance and performer mastery of the musical content.