Lost and found in music: Music, consciousness and subjectivity

Abstract

"Strong experiences of music"-to use Alf Gabrielsson's (2011) term-commonly, but apparently paradoxically, seem to involve people in both losing themselves and finding themselves in music. How can this be? Who or what is lost, and, equally, who or what is found, and how can they both happen together? In this paper I offer an approach to these questions, framed within the perspectives of musical consciousness and musical subjectivity, that attempts to bring together perceptual, emotional and embodied components of musical experience, embedded in the ecology of everyday listening. In doing so, I also argue for the importance of paying proper attention to phenomenological qualities of listeners' experiences, for the historically specific and changing nature of human subjectivity experienced through music, and for a dynamic and animated understanding of musical engagement.

Feeling at one: Socio-affective distribution, vibe, and dance-music consciousness

“…(Malbon 2002: 114) Thus, the primary musical consciousness of clubbing and raving provides the building ground for the various performances of identity and sexuality with which this subculture is associated (Fikentscher 2000;Gilbert and Pearson 1999;Rief 2011;Thornton 1995). When the vibe provides the right conditions, dancers can be both 'lost and found' in music (Clarke 2014).…”

Agency in Embodied Music Interaction

“…According to Cumming, "vocality, gesture and agency together, understood in their own right as signs, now become the representata for a new synthesis that forms the 'subject' in music" (1997, p. 15). Her autobiographically-informed, philosophical account of a classically-trained western art musician's subjectivity 2000 In short, musical subjectivity has been construed differently in relation to the context and historical moment of its discussion: notions of musical subjectivity are not static (Clarke, 2014). A current trend of phenomenological approaches to the study of everyday listening and musical engagement begin from this starting point, with methods designed to explore the dynamic qualities of musical experience (Gabrielsson, 2011;Herbert, 2011;Clarke, 2014).…”

“…The subject as conceived in relation to western classical music is a particular case, and has been the influential focus of a great deal of speculation and theorization. The familiar instruction, for example, that students of music performance submit in some way by 'giving oneself up' to the music is not unknown beyond western classical music worlds, and in fact -as Gabrielsson (2011) and Clarke (2014) point out -it is a familiar experience to performers, non-performers and listeners alike. But it would be misleading for any researcher with scientific intentions to imagine or conceptualize musical interaction according to western classical music's norms.…”

“…In comparison,Fritz et al (2013) report an empirical study that explored the effect of an additional sound/music-making component to a physical exertion task.This component of sound-making is described as musical agency, defined by the authors as 'a performance of bodily movement guided by an agent and governed by a goal or intention'. In this usage, again, the word 'agent' may be substituted by the word 'individual' Clarke's (2014). more direct enquiry of musical agency asks how and why, from a psychological perspective, do we hear person-like attributes in musical sound?…”

3Mo: A Model for Music-Based Biofeedback

“…Complementary to emotions and mood induced by music listening are aspects relating to absorption, dissociation, and trance (Becker, 2004; Herbert, 2011; Schäfer et al, 2013; Clarke, 2014). These aspects point to changes of awareness and consciousness that occur when people are “deeply” engaged with music, either by listening or performing.…”