Name
HausingMusiking: A Relational Practice in HausMusik Brazil Project
Date & Time
Tuesday, July 28, 2026, 3:35 PM - 3:50 PM
Description
This work analyzes the edition of the HausMusik Brasil Project entitled “Homage to the Possamai Family.” This project consists of musical recitals held in private homes, involving musicians, family members, and friends. The family hosting a HausMusik transforms its living room into a stage for musical performance, where all those present actively participate.This particular edition, which extended over twelve hours and emphasized Brazilian repertoire, provided participants with a shared musical experience that combined relational, familial, and welcoming dimensions. The event constituted a space in which all participants embodied what Christopher Small defines as “musicking,” understanding music as a verb rather than a noun—an activity that encompasses everyone involved in the musical performance, from the composer to the listener, as well as those who make the performance possible.According to Small (1998), musicking has four main characteristics: it is performative, as it constitutes a musical act; it is communal, as it involves at least two people on the same occasion; it is relational, because the quality of the musicking experience is directly connected to the quality of the social relationships among those involved; and it is holistic, since music engages the human being in all its dimensions.In light of this edition, and drawing upon Small’s concept (1998), we propose a new terminology specific to the HausMusik Brasil Project, resulting in the expression “HausingMusiking.” In this perspective, not only is music a verb of action (Small, 1998), but so too is the house: the gestures, movements, and dynamics of family life are, by their very nature, processes of flow and transformation—hausing.The very nature of the German term Hausmusik (“home music”), which so precisely combines two nouns, transcends its original meaning within the educational and musical practices developed in the HausMusik Brasil Project. From the moment a family accepts the invitation to become a Host Family, to the lived experience of the event itself, both music (as musicking) and house (as hausing) evolve, interact, and remain mutually interdependent.These dual and relational movements generate distinctive transformations, influencing both the family and the musical experience. Within this environment, family and music-making form bivalent connections of differentiated musical densities (Tillmann, 2016), permeating the intricate relational web inherent to each act of musicking.House and music, thus integrated into a single lived experience, are characterized not only as movements of connection but also as connective relations—reciprocal and self-sustaining dynamics that amplify musical experiences and open pathways for learning through art.
Location Name
513B
Full Address
Palais des Congres - Montréal Convention Centre
1001, Place Jean-Paul-Riopelle
Montreal QC H2Z 1H2
Canada
Session Type
Short Paper Presentation
Presenting Author(s)
Janice Possamai Fiedler