# Playing music, playing games, playing like children, playing a role in a play.



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Is it a coincidence that English and French use the same verbs for playing like a child and playing an instrument, maybe other languages too?

Or does it suggest something profound about the nature of music and performance?


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Certainly play seems to be a serious matter. It is used for sport as well music and acting. Also anyone who knows dogs will know that play is extremely important to them. When the armed forces and police are training their dogs they don't use treats but play sessions as rewards. It works better. And has anyone seen that film clip of a pack of huskies resting when they are approached by a hungry polar bear? They seem doomed. But they dip their heads to right and left in that "please play with me" way that dogs have and suddenly the hungry hunting bear goes into play mode and plays with the dogs. I think the word describes activities that are important to us and are about relaxing from the stresses of life. I don't suppose the word was first used for what _professional _actors and musicians do.


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

Johan Huizinga's _Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture _is a classic study that traces the method by which various cultures develop the notion of play and how play can be seen in almost every facet of civilization. War, religion, politics, sports, and the arts all contain elements of play that drive their production.

http://art.yale.edu/file_columns/0000/1474/homo_ludens_johan_huizinga_routledge_1949_.pdf


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

This is from Miklós Dolinszky's essay on Kurtág 's Játékok



> Play and creation
> 
> . . . In order to
> know just what Játékok is, suffice it to ponder the title. Why do
> ...


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