Organizational Music the Role of Listening in Interaction Processes

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONRemember the story of Narcissus? Narcissus was a handsome yet arrogant young man whowas deeply admired by his fellow young people. One day he was wandering in the woods andsaw his picture being reflected from a little pond. So wonderful was that vision that Narcissusfell in love with the image and stayed by the water until he finally starved to death at the veryplace. The issue that has almost totally escaped people’s attention is the following part of thestory; there was another person involved who actually tried to warn Narcissus. A little nymphEcho, the mythical incarnation of pure tone, tried to warn him but in vain. The only thing leftof Echo was her voice so she could not be seen or touched, but only heard. (If one paidattention and listened carefully.) Thus mythology demonstrates to us in this story ofNarcissus how vision’s privilege and hearing’s despisal can have deadly consequences(Bellingham 1989, pp. 102–103, Welsch 1997, p. 157).PURPOSE OF THE PAPERThis story is one piece of evidence demonstrating the dominant position of vision overhearing. Indeed, the world has been and still is primarily determined by vision. This state ofaffairs directs the way we relate to the world, observe other people and interact with eachother. In this world, dominated by vision, there are however places where visual primacydoes not rule. One obvious example is music, making music, playing or singing. There thecrucial knowledge is to listen, to react, and to follow. The purpose of this paper is to discussvarious aspects of listening in music and in musical environments, and then introduce thoseideas to other organizations as well. I am generally interested in interaction between peopleand wish to investigate the role of listening in these interaction processes. Human interactionis fundamental in all organizations and it seems that listening has a more important role in