AN ORCHESTRA IS A ‘HOLARCHY’

    While writing a management-type essay about how an organisation could be structured as an orchestra is, and, how an orchestra is a perfect example of a holarchy, I adapted it as a standalone essay on the orchestra as a holarchy

WHAT'S HOLON & HOLARCHY

     So what’s a holarchy? “A Holarchy is a ‘Natural Hierarchy’ of Holons”, said Arthur Koestler, who coined the words ‘holon’ and holarchy to refer to an entity that is in itself a whole and is simultaneously part of some other whole.  

     And what’s a holon? A Holon is a whole and a part. Just as a particle is complete by itself and exists by itself but becomes part of another complete entity - an atom, it yet retains its completeness and its identity. A Holon too, is a complete entity which in addition to maintaining its own autonomy as a whole, simultaneously fits in as a part of something else. Its own existence, though complete, depends upon its capacity to fit-in and be part of something else. For instance, a whole atom is part of a whole cell, and the whole cell is part of a whole organism, and so on... in an increasing form of wholeness - from atoms, to molecules, to plants, to animals and to humans. Each of these entities is both a whole and a part - a ‘whole/part’, a Holon.

     A ‘holarchy’ is simply an order of increasing wholeness. For example: particles > atoms > cells > organisms, or, letters of the alphabet > words > sentences > paragraphs. The whole of one level becomes a part of the whole of the next.

     A natural hierarchy, for example is - Date > Month > Quarter > Year.  Or - Cities > States > Countries > Regions > Continents.

     When one says, “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” that means that the whole is at a deeper or higher level of organisation than the parts alone – that’s a Holarchy!  

     The words Holon and Holarchy that were neologised by Arthur Koestler were examined explored by Ken Wilber in his book “A Brief History of Everything” and it is from this book that I have summarised and rearticulated the ideas of the holon and holarchy.

AN ORCHESTRA AS A HOLARCHY

     An orchestra, or a jazz band or a choir are perfect examples of a Holarchy.

     For an orchestra, the score, written in musical notation, are the written rules and guidelines for the part each member of the orchestra sings or plays on their individual instrument to suit the section to which the instrument belongs, and the score is arranged so that all the several different instruments, voices and instrument-groups play their different written parts to blend harmoniously together.

     Each musician, instrument voice and instrumentalist play a specific part which is complete by itself, but which also merges into the section of which it is part, and each section of the orchestra augments and enhances the sound of the whole orchestra. This is what makes an orchestra “a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts”. And this is typical of a holarchy.  

     We will look at how a large group of musicians, is organised and constructed to produce music.  

    A symphony* orchestra is composed of a large group of organized instruments which usually play classical music compositions, and could have as many as 100 musicians in it, and perhaps, in a large 100 piece symphony orchestra, around sixty or seventy would play stringed instruments and the rest would play other instruments. A Jazz band or choir could also have many musicians playing many instruments and have many singers in them. 

     The string section of a symphony orchestra is: first violins, second violins, violas, cellos and double basses. One or two harps may also be part of the symphony orchestra.

     The woodwind section is next - woodwinds are usually composed of flutes (including alto and bass flute), piccolos, oboes (including bass oboe), cor anglais, clarinets, bass clarinet, bassoons and a double bassoon.  

    Then there is the brass section, the instruments which comprise the brass section of a symphony orchestra are the trumpet, cornet, trombone (including the alto and bass trombone), French horn and tuba.

     Percussion instruments - Not all percussion instruments will be included in a symphony orchestra. The percussion instruments are usually the xylophone, bass drum, tympani and piano.

     A jazz orchestra or big band is also an organisation of a large number of musicians who play a variety of musical instruments that play Jazz or any orchestrated music.  

A Jazz orchestra or Jazz band is also divided into sections, for example, Charles Mingus’s big band compositions had a Woodwind section of Alto saxophones, tenor saxophones, baritone saxophones, Bassoon, bass clarinet; and piccolo, flute, oboe and clarinet. 

The Brass section had Trumpets, French horn, trombones, tuba. And the Rhythm section had - Piano, Bass, drums, vibes (vibraharp), guitar, percussion. Sometimes a jazz orchestra or jazz band has a few strings, and occasionally, a symphonic string section to complement the orchestra.

In a choir a group of voices is divided in to four parts of voice pitches and tones:

Sopranos, alto’s, tenors and basses, singing different notes and parts in harmony which could be accompanied by an instrument, or a small ensemble, or an orchestra, or unaccompanied by any musical instrument. A choir could comprise just a few male and female voices, to a hundred voices and more.

     

An orchestra exemplifies and illustrates a ‘Holarchy’

     The orchestra or jazz band or Choir is structured so that all are equally important to each other and interdependent. Each voice or instrument is like a Holon, which maintains its own wholeness, identity and autonomy, yet fits in as a part of something bigger than itself. Each voice or instrument is part of a section, like the string section or woodwinds or brass or percussion, yet each plays its own part in the section it belongs to and each section, plays its part according to its role in the orchestra. 

     So, an orchestra is constructed as a Holarchy and comprises equally important independent parts which would increase in its wholeness as it grows. Though each voice or instrument is capable of being a soloist and independent, it is part of a higher level, which, in turn fits into another part at a deeper or higher level of the orchestra, making 

the whole greater than the sum of its parts.  Q.E.D.  

     *A symphony orchestra or a philharmonic orchestra is the same thing, but the words symphony or philharmonic are only used to differentiate orchestras. When there are two good orchestras in a city, one would call itself a symphony orchestra and the other a philharmonic orchestra for e.g. the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO), founded

in 1842, and the New York Symphony Orchestra founded in 1878, which, till today, entertain discerning audiences with a high quality of music with only their distinctive names to differentiate them.

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