Meaning in Music Is Intentional, but in Soundscape It Is Not—A Naturalistic Approach to the Qualia of Sounds

Abstract

The sound environment and music intersect in several ways and the same holds true for the soundscape and our internal response to listening to music. Music may be part of a sound environment or take on some aspects of environmental sound, and therefore some of the soundscape response may be experienced alongside the response to the music. At a deeper level, coping with music, spoken language, and the sound environment may all have influenced our evolution, and the cognitive-emotional structures and responses evoked by all three sources of acoustic information may be, to some extent, the same. This paper distinguishes and defines the extent of our understanding about the interplay of external sound and our internal response to it in both musical and real-world environments. It takes a naturalistic approach to music/sound and music-listening/soundscapes to describe in objective terms some mechanisms of sense-making and interactions with the sounds. It starts from a definition of sound as vibrational and transferable energy that impinges on our body and our senses, with a dynamic tension between lower-level coping mechanisms and higher-level affective and cognitive functioning. In this way, we establish both commonalities and differences between musical responses and soundscapes. Future research will allow this understanding to grow and be refined further.

Music Listening as Kangaroo Mother Care: From Skin-to-Skin Contact to Being Touched by the Music

“…There is, in fact, a long history of cognitive and affective-emotional functions, which are grounded in basic homeostatic regulation, as the driving mechanism for self-regulation (see below), and which challenges a strict distinction between art and non-art [83]. Music, in that view, can be defined as a "sound environment" or "sonic landscape" with acoustic cues, which the listener can perceive as being either beneficial or harmful [84,85]. Listening, then, can be considered a way of sense-making and coping with the sounds.…”

Música y ecología

“…A pesar de que el movimiento ecopedagógico tiene más de cincuenta años de haber iniciado, no fue hasta finales del siglo XX que incrementó el número de publicaciones. En la actualidad, la ecopedagogía se concibe como un movimiento social y como una reforma educativa indispensable para afrontar los problemas de sustentabilidad; centra la atención en la vida cotidiana y las necesidades de las personas y para ello es necesario desarrollar: Nuestro proyecto también se apoyó en la ecomusicología, una rama de la musicología que se ha perfilado como una disciplina que se desarrolla en la intersección de la música, el sonido, la cultura, la sociedad, la naturaleza y el medio ambiente (Welch et al, 2023). Pedelty (2012) documentó algunas definiciones; una de ellas señala que es el estudio de la música, la cultura y la naturaleza en todas las complejidades.…”

An implementation science systematic review of neurophysiological evidence indicates the tinnitus core network as a therapeutic target

“…A three-phase enriched environment protocol matching a multistage rehabilitation program applied post-head trauma or stroke, was found to improve cerebral blood flow, reducing cortical cellular loss (Zhan et al, 2020). Specific examples of implementation include encouraging end-user patients to identify new ways to deepen their experience of naturally occurring sound (Welch et al, 2022), incorporating mindfulness (Tran et al, 2020(Tran et al, , 2023 that may engage tinnitus core inhibitory systems and reduce stress. Multisensory novel stimuli, such as visual-auditory (experiencing unexpected or new sights and sounds) or motionauditory stimuli (such as singing and dancing), may activate similar limbic structures to narrow-band noise.…”