An investigation into the motivation of South African orchestral musicians studying at tertiary level

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The conductor of an orchestra or ensemble plays an important role in the motivation oforchestral musicians. It is commonly known that musicians in orchestras work in highlypressured environments which could take its toll on them mentally and physically. As aconductor, I wanted to understand the motivational levels of orchestral players studying attertiary institutions in South Africa from the perspective of the Self-Determination Theory.Knowing the level of motivation experienced by musicians, could assist the conductor increating strategies to efficiently and positively influence the orchestra. There have beenprevious studies into the stress and motivational aspects musicians experience during theirtransitions from school level through to the professional stage, however, none consider theSouth African context. Thus, additional studies are required to understand the orchestralenvironment within in this specific context, as well as to provide a structured methodologythat the conductor could use in order to understand and positively influence the motivation oftheir orchestra.This study evaluated the motivation of musicians (N=53) through the lens of the Self-Determination Theory, not only to describe whether the musicians are motivated, but toindicate the quality and internalisation of the motivation they are experiencing. A quantitativestudy was done by means of a survey consisting of 65 questions, synthesised through twomini-theories of the Self-Determination Theory, namely the Basic Psychological NeedsTheory, and the Organismic Integration Theory. The survey was distributed to students fromfive South African universities with active symphony orchestras, or comparable ensembles.Statistical results show that musicians do experience intrinsic motivation more than extrinsicmotivation within the orchestral environment, however, the intrinsic motivation experiencedis negatively affected during final stages within the course of the undergraduate degree,indicating that motivation becomes more extrinsically driven at critical stages.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University