Shared Musical Lives

Abstract

This book makes the case for the epistemological and ethical significance of musical experience. Music can be a source of self-knowledge and self-expression and hence can reveal important dimensions of the self to others. This knowledge—both of self and of others—has a moral force as well. Shared musical experience can transform and establish new modes of being with others, cultivate virtues, and expand the moral imagination. The term sonification provides an organizing principle for the arguments in the book. In a scientific context, sonification is defined as the translation of data or information into nonverbal audible tones. Transposing the concept into a philosophical key, this work defines sonification in two ways: first, sonification is the process by which musical experience reveals dimensions of the self and relationships with others; in a more theoretical sense, philosophical sonification refers to the critical re-examination of philosophical concepts, arguments, and theories in view of what musical experience reveals. These two forms of sonification are explored specifically in the context of disability. Reflecting upon the musical lives of people with cognitive and intellectual disabilities brings their experiences into the foreground, challenges and broadens existing conceptions of disability and music, and provides new ways of thinking about musicking and the philosophies of music and disability.