Les épreuves du travail musical : la persévérance des musiciens et musiciennes au Québec
In this thesis, the musical practice of Quebec musicians is approached from the angle of work and its troubles. It is based on the analysis of work experiences of musicians and journalistic representations of success. This research is in the current of artistic work, that is to say the sociology of work which takes as object the artists and their practice. The originality of the subject lies in a change of focus where the work of musicians is no longer only understood in terms of precariousness, but perseverance. If all studies on artists describe particularly precarious employment conditions, how can their perseverance be explained? Perseverance as the guiding thread of the dissertation is operationalized by the notion of troubles. Beyond a vision of the pathways dotted with scattered troubles, the problematized notion becomes a convincing analytical operator. A first moment of the process describes the journalistic representations of musical work by the union magazine Entracte. This first look is then deepened by an analysis of interviews with musicians in Quebec. Freelance and the original project are the two main forms of musical work and are crossed by several troubles. From a synchronic point of view, the general feeling of lack of time is the manifestation of the typical trouble that comes to structure all these events, and which is characterized by a tension between making a « living » in music and « playing » music. Musicians must both pursue their artistic vision and consider it in terms of retribution. In a diachronic perspective, a more fundamental self-study comes to structure the experience of the musicians. They must find a way for them to « find their place » in a profession where the ways of exercising and the universes are multiple, facing identity troubles that act as contradictory injunctions.
Musical work Artistic work Musicians Troubles Perseverance Identity Precariousness