The task for educators at the conservatory seems straightforward enough: to make sure that students enter professional practice as well-equipped as possible. A crucial element in this is that we shape practice as we go. What do we make important? What do we prioritize? No matter how concrete we are and how ‘practical’ we think (or think we think), music, our daily bread and butter, is a highly elusive matter. In addition, although it may seem that ‘notes’ are simply objective ‘musical material’, as soon as we start to compose with, think about, play, or even simply listen to those notes, the matter ceases to be neutral. Whether we are aware of it or not, or whether we want to or not, as soon as we engage ‘the music itself’, we also always inevitably (trans)form it as well. Especially in the field of music theory, the activity of bringing order may lead to problems that have their origin in the activity itself rather than in the subject matter. Normativity and performativity quickly loom.

In my presentation, I will review a number of very concrete examples of this normative and formative aspect that struck me while writing the thesis. These examples are not all of the same nature, and they are not all strictly in the field of music theory. My goal is twofold and simple: I want to share something of what occupied and struck me during my research, and on the other hand, I hope to offer starting points for everyone to reflect on their own views on the relationship between ‘theory’ and ‘practice’.