The Phenomenological Analysis and Description of Musical Experience

Abstract

Without a prior analysis of the music itself there could be no true description of musical experience. In fact, the key to the comprehension of this experience is provided by the simultaneous consideration and intimate connection of the concrete aspect of music (i.e., its tonal events and relationships) with the delineation of its perceived affective meaning. Phenomenally objective tonal events include individual tones, intervals, motives, melodies, chords and their progressions, metrical and rhythmic schemes, and syntactical relationships. Phenomenally subjective factors consist of states of consciousness evoked by the tonal events as they give rise to affective meaning. Phenomenological description consequently shifts the emphasis from the experiential to the linguistic level. This description of musical experience is given in phenomenological rather than musical terms.