Review of Eric Clarke,Ways of Listening: An Ecological Approach to the Perception of Musical Meaning(Oxford University Press, 2005; paperback, 2011)

Abstract

[1] Ten years have passed since the first publication of Ways of Listening. As with all anniversaries, this one presents us with an opportunity for reflection: to consider the ingenuity of Eric Clarke's project, to be sure, as well as its enduring relevance. Now, as it did then, Ways of Listening appeals to a wide audience in its content and tone. At the time, it offered the most extensive application of ecological psychology to music perception and analysis. And as a study of musical meaning from the standpoint of listening, it complements and challenges influential approaches that employ different frameworks, for instance those of semiotics, hermeneutics, and multimedia. (1) More broadly, Ways of Listening presents a significant attempt to integrate the perspectives of psychology and musicology. While Clarke notes in 2005 that only "partial convergence" between the two fields had taken place, in 2015, such a union is hardly uncommon. In the past decade alone, music scholars have celebrated several new books that deftly handle their interdisciplinary subject matter and tackle some rather weighty issues, including but not limited to: the way music evokes emotion; how listener expectations are formed; and the roles of metaphor, physical motion, and repetition in everyday musical experiences. (2) Against the current landscape, Clarke's central concern-how it is that listeners perceive musical meaning-is as relevant as ever. And remarkably, his discussion incorporates ideas that have gained currency over the years (no doubt contributing to the paperback reissue), most notably musical listening as an embodied experience. Clarke's writing style is straightforward and engaging, aimed at a readership both with and without formal psychological and music-theoretical training. Moreover, numerous lengthy and diverse music examples feature prominently.