Proposal of a Model from the Perspective of Parsons Functional-Structural Theory

Abstract

Taking into consideration the use of the systemic models in interdisciplinary research and education, we analyze the perception of the musical act developed by Talcott Parsons in 1959, based on his Structural-Functional Theory for the social analysis of 1951. In this article, the creative act of the develops considering the demands of his role as a composer and performer, and the conditions the society at large imposed. This relationship also involves the interpretation of the inherited musical culture and is related to the composing skills of the author, the instrumental technique of the performer, and musical intelligence. As a case study, we take the emergence of the Mexican bolero to illustrate it. From this sociological approach, we can understand the identity of the Mexican bolero as a product of an era, in which both the composition and the musical performance are adapted to their cultural environment and are part of the society and its structure. Based on Parsons' proposal, we created a conceptual systemic model through four modules: Personal, Behavioral, Social, and Cultural. This model also represents the internalization, learning and socializations processes, which were the interrelationships between the systems for Parsons. Later we began to develop it in a computational systemic model, in which it is intended to measure the different variables of the musical act system, considering different contexts and temporal spaces.

Keywords

• computational model
• mexican bolero
• personal-social construction
• musical act
• parsons functional-structural theory