“That’s what makes me authentic, because what we do makes sense” – Music professionals’ experiences of authenticity: A phenomenological, hermeneutical interview study

Abstract

Within music education, music therapy, and music performance theory, various perspectives on the concept of authenticity have been discussed and investigated. Authenticity seems to be a concept with wide possibilities for application and likewise wide definitional borders, which makes it hard to investigate. Drawing on the knowledge and framework developed by Bøtker and Jacobsen (2023), we wish to continue the investigation of authenticity within three music professions from a practice-based perspective. For this study, music therapists, music educators, and music performers (six participants) were interviewed twice about their experiences of their own authenticity when facilitating musical activities with children and adults (parents or teachers). The interviews were transcribed and analysed using a thematic coding analysis: deductively using the conceptual framework by Bøtker and Jacobsen as well as inductively by looking for new emerging themes across these three professions. The findings confirm the conceptual framework but also suggest an expansion, adding the element of ‘Values’. The new framework consists of six elements that all pertain to the experience of authenticity: relationship, role, context, professionalism, personality, and values. Furthermore, another theme appeared through the inductive analysis – ‘floating-anchoring’ – describing and synthesising the connection between the reflective and the sensorial awareness that supplement each other in the experience of authenticity within these three music professions. This floating-anchoring synthesis is suggested as a relevant framework for training and education within the three music professions.